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A HISTORY 



OF 



DEERPARK 

IN 

ORANGE COUNTY, N. Y 

/ 

By PETER E. GUMAER. 




WITH PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR AND CUT OF 
HOUSE IN WHICH HE LIVED. 



Published by the 
MINISINK VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



1890. 



PORT JERVIS UNION PRINT. 



PREFACE. 



Having been solicited by certain individuals of the 
first settlers in the neighborhood of my residence, 
in the town of Deerpark, for a written information in 
relation to their respective ancestry, both of those who 
now reside in this town and of those residing in other 
parts of our country, and feeling desirous to gratify 
their wishes and save from oblivion the knowledge I 
possess relative to their forefathers, I have thought 
proper to make out a small work of the same and get 
it printed, so that all who shall be desirous of such 
information can obtain the same, which undoubtedly 
must be a great satisfaction to many who have not had 
the opportunity of becoming informed in relation 
thereto, especially the descendants of those whose 
parents at an early day of the settlement of our western 
country emigrated into it. The general topics of con- 
versation have changed much in this vicinity within my 
time of life. At the termination of the Kevolutionary 
war this change commenced. The attention of -the 
young people was generally directed towards the pass- 
ing scenes of their time, and they remained ignorant 
of what had transpired during the lives of their fore- 
fathers. In the early part of my life some of the old 
people, whenever they came together, generally intro- 



8 PREFACE. 

duced the occurrences of former times, in relation to 
the ancient inhabitants of this valley, who inhabited it 
for a distance of eighty miles. From these discourses 
and my own observations and researches, I have be- 
come enabled to write this history. Capt. Cuddeback, 
Esq. Depuy and my own mother were the greatest his- 
torians. Of what had materially transpired through- 
out this valley from the first and last of these I have 
had my greatest source of information. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The most interesting subjects in relation to the town 
of Deerpark are contained in Eager's " History of 
Orange County." These are not embraced in this 
work, excepting a few articles for making a connection 
of certain matters therein contained, with additional 
materials herein introduced. 

All mankind generally are desirous to possess a 
knowledge of their ancestry, their characters, occupa- 
tions, manner and circumstances of life, the lineal 
descent of the most anterior of them, the different 
scenes through which the successive generations have 
passed, &g. All of Avhich is embraced in this small 
work, as far as my information and knowledge in rela- 
tion thereto extends ; and, being an old man, and hav- 
ing in early life had great opportunities to become in- 
formed in respect to the early settlement of this town 
and of the people, who, from time to time settled in it, 
and their descendants from generation to generation, 
down to the parentage of the fourth of those who first 
settled in Peenpack, and of the third who settled in 
the lower neighborhood. I, myself, have also been a 



12 INTRODUCTION. 



spectator of the transpiring occurrences from the com- 
mencement of the Eevolutionarj war until the present 
time. 

Very different have been the scenes of life through 
which the successive generations have passed, and, 
considering myself to possess the greatest fund of 
knowledge relating to the same, I have viewed it as in- 
cumbent on me to write this liistory and save from 
oblivion the matter therein contained, in such manner 
as the incompetency of my abilities will admit, which, 
even if not in the best manner, still comprehend the sub- 
stance I deemed necessary to be embodied in it, with 
much diffidence, however, in respect to some parts of 
the same, in which I have been too lavish in intro- 
ducing unnecessary matter. But as this work is only 
intended for the present and future descendants of the 
first pioneers in the district of the present town of 
Deerpark, I have thought proper to enter some minute 
matters to inform the readers how their forefathers 
have progressed through life. They came here poor 
and ventured their lives among the Indians to enjoy 
the lands they took in possession and afterwards 
bought. 

The materials furnished in this work are the follow- 
ing : My views relative to an alteration supposed to 
have, in very remote times, occurred in this valley and 
created the formation of it, so as our forefathers found 
it : also the time they settled here and the inhabitants 
who then occupied it ; their manner of life and means 
of supporting themselves, and other different matters 
and conjectures in relation to them ; also the wild ani- 
mals, fowls and fishes which were in this part of the 



INTRODUCTION. l'< 



country ; the names of the first seven settlers, and the 
time they procured a patent for the land they intended 
to occupy ; also the names of those who first settled 
in the lower neighborhood, and, as near as can be 
ascertained, the time they settled there and the places 
where all of both neighborhoods severally located ; 
also the names of their respective descendants to the 
third generation of the Peenpack neighborhood, their 
marriages and manner of living, and the ages to Avhich 
they respectively arrived, as near as I could ascertain 
the same. Also certain matters in relation to a late 
emigration into this town of inhabitants who have 
built up the village of Port Jervis, which commenced 
about the year 1827 ; the great diminution of birds, 
snakes, frogs and toads, within the last thirty years ; 
also the commencement and continuance from time to 
time of religious ^vorship, and the first introduction of 
Justices of the Peace, &g. ; the anterior prices of 
farmers' productions, and of wages, together with 
some speculative and interesting matters in relation to 
the same. 

Note. — There were some members of families in both neighborhoods 
whose names I did not know, and have left blanks for the same, so that 
the purchaser of a book can write the names of his respective relatives, 
omitted in the blanks left for that purpose. 

[The committee on publication have supplied these 
names, so far as they have been able, and have included 
them in brackets in their proper places.] 

The " History of Deerpark " was written by Mr. 
Gumaer between the years of 1858 and 1882 from ma- 
terials collected by him during many years of close 
observation and after much diligence and painstaking 



14 INTRODUCTION. 



in the collection of facts derived from frequent inter- 
course with others. It is safe to say that no other per- 
son in the town of Deerpark, within the last fifteen 
years, has been so well qualified by the possession of 
historical facts and other considerations to write its 
history as was Mr. Gumaer. Samuel W. Eager, in his 
history of Orange county, published in 1846 and 1847, 
says that he is more indebted to Mr. Gumaer than to 
any one person in the county for his " good will and 
assistance " in preparing his history. This work, pre- 
pared with so much care, has been very generously do- 
nated by his son, Peter L. Gumaer, to the Miuisink Val- 
ley Historical Society, who have deemed it of sufficient 
value to publish, and appointed a committee to super- 
intend its publication. This committee have found it 
necessary to make a few changes in the correction of 
dates, which have been found to be erroneous, as also 
in a few^ instances in the names of persons and of 
places occupied by them. Where blanks have been 
left by the author in the names of families, to which he 
alludes ia his introduction, the committee have en- 
deavored to fill them, so far as they have been able, 
from church records and other sources. Where any 
blanks remain unfilled, or where there may be any 
errors in the filling up, or in the original, the commit- 
tee will esteem it a favor to be informed of the same. 
The changes that have been thus made are indicated 
either by the names being inclosed in brackets or by 
explanatory notes at the bottom of the page. As the 
history was written about thirty years ago, Mr. Gumaer 
designates particular places by their then owners and 
occupants. As these have, in many instances, under- 



INTRODUCTION. 15 



gone changes by death and removal, the committee 
have added notes indicating the present owners and 
occupants. With these exceptions and an occasional 
word or two, the history is published as originally 
written. 

The committee close this statement with a brief 
sketch of the author : 

Peter E. Gumaer was born in the town of Deerpark, 
at or near Fort Gumaer, May 28, 1771, and died De- 
cember 18, 1869, at the age of 98 years, 6 months and 
20 days. His parents were Ezekiel Gumaer and 
Naomi Low. He was a descendant of the French 
Huguenots, who fled from France at the time of their 
persecution. His father, being a farmer, he inherited 
the business and also learned the art of surveying, 
Avhich he followed for more than fifty years. He 
surveyed most of the lands in the town of 
Deerpark, and also of adjoining towns. He was 
plain and unassuming in manner and deportment, 
much attached to his home and family, and, during 
his whole lifetime, lived in the town of Deer- 
park, having never visited the city of New York. 
In his principles he Avas regarded as a man of great 
integrity, always manifesting a conscientious regard for 
right, and nothing but strict and exact justice would 
satisfy him. His habits of living were extremely tem- 
perate, using but little animal food and no stimulants, 
except tea. He was a man of great industry, never 
idle and never seeking pleasure or enjoyment outside 
of business or study. He was of a literary turn of 
mind, and devoted as much of his time to reading and 
study as his pursuits would allow. He took great de- 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

light in the study of astronomy and philosophy. He 
was especially interested in Sir Isaac Newton's theory 
of the motions of the heavenly bodies, and said if it 
was correct, perpetual motion was possible and sought 
for a long time to demonstrate it practically. In 1851 
he published a small volume upon astronomy. During 
his life he held many positions of public trust, which 
were filled with credit to himself and to the satisfaction 
of his constituents. It is said that among the many 
instruments of writing drawn by him not one was ever 
broken in a court of law, nor were any of his surveys 
of land found to be incorrect. 

He held in high esteem his 9.ncestry, whose remains 
are buried in the Gumaer Cemetery, and a few years 
previous to his death, as a token of regard for them, 
he erected monuments to their memory with appropri- 
ate inscriptions. 

In his early life it was customary for the ministers in 
the Reformed Dutch Church, which he attended, to 
preach in the Holland (Dutch) and English languages 
on alternate Sabbaths, and so familiar was he with the 
former that upon returning home he was at a loss to 
say, when asked, in which language the services had 
been held. A bit of romance has been related con- 
cerning his marriage. It is said that when he was a 
young man he visited the house of his future mother- 
in-law, and that she had a little child in the cradle 
which she was rocking, and that she said to him : 
" Peter, I want you to rock the cradle, and when this 
child grows up to be a young woman you may have 
her for a wife." It so proved that he married this 
same child that he had thus rocked in the cradle. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 



The names aucl ages of Mr. Giimaer's children are as 
follows : 

Morgan, born January 27th, 1815, and died July 5th, 
1855. 

Ezekiel P., born May 10th, 1817, and died June 25th, 
1877. 

Jacob C. E., born October 18th, 1820, living at Ovid, 
Mich. 

Peter L., born January 29th, 1827, living at Guy- 
mar d, N. Y. 

Naomi, born January 20th, 1830, and died May 2d, 
1862. 

Andrew J., born November 4th, 1833, living at Guy- 
mard, N. Y. 

Esther Harriet, born August 30th, 1835, living at 
Brooklyn, N. Y., widow of Isaac Mulock. 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 



GEOGRAPHICAIi FORMATION OF THE VALLEY. 

Before entering into a detail relative to tlie settle- 
ment of this town by Europeans, the causes of their 
emigration from the fatherland, their manner of life 
in this then wilderness part of our country, &c., &g., I 
will give my views of what I consider to have been an- 
teriorly the geographical face of this district of terri- 
tory, its productions an 1 its native inhabitants. 

The present form of the surface of the earth teaches 
us that there has been a time when it was in many 
places very different from what it is at this day. This 
appears to be the case wherever there are rivers and 
streams of water ; and we have reason to think that 
many lakes and ponds have been drained by the action 
of streams of water issuing therefrom. It must be the 
case that there was a time when the surface of the 



20 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

ground in the valley along the Neversink and Dela- 
ware rivers in this town, together with that part of it 
which extends southwest to the gap of the mountain, 
where the Delaware passes through it, and northeast 
to the North river, &c., laid below the bottom of a lake 
of water. This opinion has been formed previous to 
my contemplations respecting it. Eager gives some 
account of this in his " History of Orange County," 
pages 407 and 40S, and sufficiently establishes the fact 
from Indian tradition, Szc. 

Not only does the gap of the mountain, where the 
river passes through it, exhibit strong reasons of a 
passage being worn through it by the action of the 
water of a lake in this valley, but the knolls and low 
hills in this valley show that they have undergone much 
washing of water ; and, what appears somewhat mys- 
terious, hills thirty and forty feet higher than the sur- 
face of the river flats are all composed of ground, 
gravel, sand and such smooth stones as are in the bot- 
toms of rivers, from which it appears that not only the 
surface of those hills, but that all the materials of which 
they are composed, have for some length of time been 
water- washed. We find in them some places of clear 
sand, not mixed with the other materials mentioned, 
such as is in river sand banks ; from which we have 
reason to conjecture that after the water received a 
passage through the mountain it created a current in 
the lake towards it, and as that passage enlarged and 
wore down, the water in the lake drew off and the cur- 
rent of its stream increased and washed the highest 
parts of its bottom down into the hollows, where the 
water was deep, and thereby run down gradually large 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 21 

bodies of water- washed stones, gravel, sand and ground 
from the highest elevations of the bottom surface into 
its lowest parts, many of which have remained where 
they have been carried by the waters, and the adjoin- 
ing ground, which first was highest, has run down the 
stream and continued to be moved down until a gradual 
descent of the rivers was formed, on a bottom of 
smooth water-washed stones, gravel and sand, which 
now lie at different depths below the surface of the 
river flats, viz. : from about four to seven and eight 
feet below that of the lands along the Neversink river, 
and at greater depths along the surface of the Delaware 
river flats. 

After a river bottom was formed where the flats now 
are, the stream creating meandering channels through 
those river bottom flats would contain the water of tlie 
rivers when low, but in freshets, overflow the flat bot- 
toms, whereby in every freshet a part of the ground 
which the water carried down in such times, lodged on 
the surface of those flats, which, continuing to accumu- 
late in this way for a great length of time, raised the 
surface so high that the freshets did not overflow it, 
unless partially in uncommon high water; and as the 
waters became more and more contined in stationary 
channels, the bottoms of these wore down by the action 
and weight of the water. In this manner undoubtedly 
was formed the soil of our river lands. In the vicinity 
of the gap of the Shawangunk mountain, through 
which the New York & Erie Railroad passes, are indi- 
cations in some places on the east side of the moun- 
tain of the surface of the ground having in a very re- 
mote period of time been under water, when I contem- 



22 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

plate it ran through this gap into the valley west of the 
mountain into a lake which has been mentioned. 

All rivers and streams have formed the grade of 
their bottoms from their smmmits toward the ocean 
according to their magnitude, and the original forma- 
tion of the respective districts of country through 
which they pass. 

The river flats, amounting to about three or four 
thousand acres, was nearly all the land in this town 
which the first pioneers considered to be of any value 
for agricultural purposes, the residue being generally 
mountainous, rough, stony land, was by them consid- 
ered to be of no value for farming purposes. 

PLENTIFUL SUPPLY OF GAME, FISH, FRUIT, ETC. 

This district of territory which the small tuwn of 
Deerpark now embraces, when the Indians were its 
sole proprietors, was a very plentiful place for Indian 
life when first discovered by Europeans. The flats, 
covered with a tall grass from four to six feet high, 
and the same and surrounding woods, often burned 
over, abounded with numerous deer, bears, raccoons, 
and many smaller animals suitable for the sustenance 
of man, also with turkeys, ducks, partridges and other 
birds suitable for man's diet. Generally in the spring 
of the year vast numbers of pigeons passed over 
here to the northeast, vast flocks of which generally 
lighted on the trees and ground to get food, which 
gave opportunities of killing some of them. The 
rivers and brooks teemed with different kinds of fishes, 
such as trout, pike, chubs, suckers, sunfish, catfish and 
eels, and numerous shad in the spring season in both 
the Delaware and the Neversink rivers, in the latter of 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 23 

which thej ran tip about five miles, which distance 
then generally was deep water and extended to where 
David Swartwout now lives^ ; these fish were caught 
by bush seines, and in the Delaware river were also 
many rockfish, which were taken in the fall of the year 
by means of eel-weirs and bush seines, some of which 
were the largest fish in this part of that river. Also, 
there were, and still are, different kinds of nuts, such 
as white walnuts, hickory nuts, chestnuts, butternuts 
hazelnuts ; also various kinds of fruit and berries, to 
wit : large and small grapes, plums, black and red wild 
cherries, huckleberries, strawberries, black and red 
raspberries, blackberries of two or more kinds, and 
wintergreen berries. Such was this district of country 
and its productions when our forefathers came here, so 
that they could obtain a plentiful supply of the best of 
wild meats of animals, fowls and fishes, and, by the 
cultivation of small portions of their lands, they could 
obtain a supply of grain, roots and other vegetables. 
They could not do much at farming before the children 
of these first families became able to assist in that 
business. At this early period of their settlement they 
pounded their grain for such bread, cakes and soups 
as they made in those times, for doing which they 
procured pounding stones from the Indians, who man- 
ufactured them, and made or obtained from the In- 
dians pounding blocks from one and a half to two and 
a half feet long, and about ten inches in diameter, in 
one end of which a suitable round cavity was burned 
in which to pound their grain, coarse salt, &c. The 
Indians manufactured both the stones and blocks in 
good style. 

*Now (1889) the residence of Peter D. Swartwout. 



24 HISTORY OF DEERPAKK. 

Jacob Cudcleback bnilt a small mill on a spring 
brook near his residence. How it answered the pur- 
pose of grinding is not known. One of the stones in 
my possession (now broken) was about two feet in 
diameter and about two inches thick. It was found in 
a cellar of an old house which stood near Cuddeback's 
first residence. 

The animals, fowls and fishes probably did not di- 
minish whilst the Indians were the only inhabitants of 
this part of the country. The increase of these peo- 
ple was slow. A married couple generally did not 
have more than two or three children, in consequence 
of wdiich they did not become more thickly populated 
than to consume only a small proportion of the abund- 
ance of wild meat this part of the country continued 
to produce, and they, not having the means we have to 
kill and get the wild animals, fowls and fishes, often 
suffered in consequence of not being enabled to kill as 
many as they wanted for their support. The most 
dexterous of them could generally get a plentiful sup- 
ply, but those who were inactive had sometimes to be 
assisted by the others, especially in the cold season of 
the year. 

INDIANS. 

When we take a view of the difference between the 
acquirements of the Indian race of people and those 
of our own nation, and the European and other en- 
lightened nations of the world, we behold an endless 
acquisition which the industry and perseverance of the 
latter have brought into their possession, whilst the 
former have scarcely made a remove from a state of 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 25 

infancy in respect to improvements. This we cannot 
so much ascribe to their mental abilities as to their in- 
dolence and distaste of the pursuits of our people, 
preferring their own mode of life to that of ours. They 
were in a state of 2:reat destitution before their inter- 
course with Europeans for want of such materials as 
they were enabled to procure after Europeans settled 
among them, from whom they could obtain such mate- 
rials as were necessary for their livelihood, guns, traps, 
hatchets, knives, blankets, and other articles of which 
they stood in need, whereby their condition of life was 
much improved ; and these advantages which they de- 
rived and which their descendants still continue to ob- 
tain as mentioned, were, and continue to be of greater 
benefit to these people than the territories which they 
abandoned ; for they now have the means of obtaining 
a more comfortable living than what- they had before 
Euroi)eans came into this country. Yet we must ad- 
mit that it was a disagreeable and melancholy trial for 
them to leave their native places ; but for these sacri- 
fices they have received and continue to receive a good 
reward, of which they would have remained destitute 
if they had remained alone in this country. It is the 
lot of mankind to undergo such changes. Thousands 
of foreigners and. our own citizens are continually mi- 
grating from place to place to advance their interest 
and better tiieir condition in life. Before Europeans 
came into this country, stone, wood and clay were the 
only materials of which they manufactured any imple- 
ments for their use ; and stone axes, bows and arrows 
were the most valuable articles they manufactured. 
The stone axe was made of a solid stone, about six 



26 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

inches long a ad two thick, one end round and the 
other flattened with a rounding towards its edge, which 
was made as sharp as the nature of the stone would 
bear for its intended use. With these they would get 
bark from trees to cover their wigwams, and made 
other shelters under which to evade the inclemency of 
storms of snow and rain, night air, &c. ; also to get 
bark for canoes, and girdle trees to kill them, so that 
the bark and limbs would fall for fuel. And with these 
axes in a slow operation they could cut and split small 
saplings for bows, and with these and other sharp 
stones and bones could scrape them off to a required 
thickness. Arrow heads (generally called harpoons 
in this section) were made of different kinds of flint 
stones, from three to about four inches long, one inch 
wide at the large end, and tapering from that to the 
small end. They were flat and rounding towards each 
side for sharpening the edges ; a notch was worked 
into each side of the big end to fasten it into the ar- 
row. These appear to have been made by knocking 
off small scales, whereby their surfaces, were left un- 
even. 

It was said that they had manufactured pots of clay 
for cooking, and that a few remains of these had been 
found, in a broken condition, and that they made eel- 
pots of withs and caught therein eels and fish by set- 
ting them in the mouths of eel-weirs, which consisted 
of wings of stones thrown up in rivers and streams of 
water. The stone axes, bows and arrows were of great 
value to the naked-handed Indians. With the latter it 
was said that they could even kill a deer by making 
the bow very stiff and laying down with it in the tall 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 27 

grass whicli grew on the flats near to a deer-path, 
would, when a deer approached to pass, place both feet 
against the bow and with both hands draw the string 
or cord of the bow and shoot the deer as it passed, so 
as to kill it. It was said they made use of a sharp flint 
stone to skin it. 

Now, although the improvements the natives of this 
country had made during their existence in it was very 
trifling, yet they had attained to about all tlint was in 
their reach in the circumstances under whicli they 
labored, and had come to the borders of a gigantic step 
which was necessary to be made for entering into a 
field of improvements similar to that of the enlight- 
ened nations of the world. 

MANUFACTURE OF IMPLEMENTS OF IRON AND STEEL. 

This step is the manufacturing of iron from the ore? 
and iron and steel utensils. The most ingenious of 
our own race of people would be puzzled to get into 
operation any works to answer that purpose, naked- 
handed as those people were, and in their state of 
ignorance when alone in this country. This discovery 
of manufacturing iron and steel utensils is the most 
useful to mankind of any ever made. Without the 
manufacture of iron, or some other metal which would 
have answered the same purpose, mankind must all 
have remained in that low, naked-handed and unim- 
proved state in which the Indians were found in this 
country. The production of this metal by the original 
cause of all things, and its manufacture, are indispen- 
sable for the whole business of mankind. The black- 
smith and manufacturer of iron and steel stand at the 



28 HISTORY OF DEEEPARK. 

head of all other mechanics. If the productions of 
the former were to pass out of existence, that of the 
latter would inevitably become extinct and the farmer 
would have to abandon the cultivation of the earth, 
and the wheels of all the hydraulic Avorks and manu- 
facturing machineries whatever would cease to move. 
The oceans, seas, lakes and rivers would become un- 
burdened of the ships and vessels passing thereon ; the 
rattling of cars on the railroads would stop their 
music, and the still voice of the telegraph would cease 
to whisper its news. The consequence of all of which 
would be starvation and a miserable life of such as 
should survive to witness such a terrible catastrophe. 

From all of which we are taught the great blessing 
we have derived in being suitably formed for its man- 
ufacture, and the construction of innumerable articles 
for our use and advantage, new inventions of which 
are continually exhibited. 

Dr. Franklin, a lover of science and friend of man, 
in the latter part of his life said, that after a century 
from the time of his decease he would like to revisit 
the earth to see what improvements Avould be made in 
that time. If he now, after a shorter period, should 
be reinstated on earth in his former capacity, he un- 
doubtedly would l)e astonished at the vast mechanical 
improvements made in our country since his time, and 
his philanthrophy would receive the very pleasing 
satisfaction of having himself made a discovery 
from which has originated one of the most wonderful 
discoveries ever made, viz. : to convey intelligence in- 
stantaneously over any distance on our globe. 

Now, although the Indians still remain disposed to 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 29 

pursue their own habits of life, yet it appears obvious 
that the time will come when it will be necessary for 
their descendants to become an improved and educated 
people and to get a livelihood by agriculture, manufac- 
ture and literature ; for they, as well as ourselves, are 
susceptible of such improvements. Their habits of 
life, continued from generation to generation for a very 
great length of time, seem to have become so seated 
in their minds that all the entreaties which the wdiite 
people have from time to time made to abandon tlieir 
present mode of life and pursue that of ours, has had 
but little effect on the great bod}^ of Indians to lead 
them out of the long accustomed habits of their an- 
cestry. 

As they were scattered over all parts of this coun- 
try before Europeans came into .it, and, as tlieir in- 
crease has been slow, it is evident that their origin in 
it must have been in a very remote period of time. 
They generally w^ere most numerous where the animals, 
fowls and fishes on which they lived were most plenti- 
ful, which w^as in the vicinity of rivers and streams of 
water, lakes and ponds ; and, in consequence of living 
chiefly on those natural productions and their destitu- 
tion of the means to get a sufficient supply of these, 
made it necessary for them to scatter thinly over this 
part of our country for procuring a competency for 
their subsistence. It Avas said they raised corn and 
beans in very small quantities. 

We have accounts of the South American Indians 
manufacturing vessels and trinkets of gold before 
Europeans came into it, in such parts of that country 
and its islands where that metal was plenty. This 



30 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

would have been easily done with the use of stones, as 
the same is very ductile. 

FIRST SETTLERS. 

In the year 1690, as near as can be determined, 
Jacob Cuddeback, Thomas Swartwout, Anthony Swart- 
wout, Bernardus Swartwout, Peter Gumaer, John 
Tyse and David Jamisont, settled in the present town 
of Deerpark, in the County of Orange and State of 
New York,. on and near a handsome knoll or hill con- 
tiguous to a spring brook and a spring of living water, 
in the central part of the Peenpack flats J. This 
spring still remains near its first location, but not as 
flush as formerly. The upper surface uf this hill is 
flat, and its elevation about 20 feet higher than the low- 
land surrounding it. The Indian name, " Peenpack," 
was, by certain of the ancient people, said to be signifi- 
cant of this hill and spring. 

Peter Gumaer located himself at the southwest end 
of the hill, John Tj^se between that and the spring 
brook, Bernardus Swartwout on the easterly brow of 
the hill, a few rods westerly of the spring, where the 
cellar now remains ; Thomas Swartwout on the central 

t Tyse and Jamison, it appears from other sources of information, 
did not become permanent settlers here. Jamison was from Scotland, 
and, from 169710 1714, served either as Vestryman or Wardenin Trinity 
Church, New York, where he was Recorder of the city in 1712, and At- 
torney-General of the Province of New York in 1720. Tyse (Tyson) 
lived at Kingston. 

t About three-fourths of a mile south of the old stone house, which 
stands near A. E. Godeffroy's dwelling, all of which was formerly 
owned by Peter E. Gumaer and family. Fort Gumaer was located on 
the south end of this knoll, oh which spot now stands the frame dwelling 
owned by A. J. Gumaer, of Guymard, and occupied by a tenant. 




GUMAEE S OLD STONE HOUSE. 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 31 



part of the hill, opposite the spring, where the cavity 
of his cellar remains ; Jacob Cuddeback a few rods 
northeast of the northeast end of the hill, on the low 
ground, where has been a cavity of his cellar, now 
leveled ; Anthony Swartwout, where the house formerly 
of Cornelius Van Inwegen stood, a few rods northeast 
of Cuddeback's place of residence, and David Jami- 
son, somewhere near this last location. Here these 
few families had advantageously located themselves for 
material assistance to repel Indian attacks, in case they 
should happen, and also for all of them to get water 
out of the spring for their drink in hot weather. The 
most distant of those residences was not over thirty 
rods from it. 

Eager, in making researches for a history of Orange 
County, found this settlement to be the earliest of any 
in it^. The liberty of settling here was probably 
obtained from the Indians by purchase ; for it appears 
that these settlers were and remained at peace with 
them and on friendly terms until the commencement of 
the French war. As the neighborhood in time ex- 
tended about four miles in length, it continued to bear 
that name, although there were several localities within 

* Since then it has bemi ascertained that there was an earlier settle- 
ment in the county near New Windsor, at what is known as Plum 
Point. In 1684, Patrick McGregorie, his brother-in-law David Toshuck, 
who subscribed his name " Laird of Minivard," and twenty-five others 
principally Sc tch Presbyterians, purchased a tract of 4,000 acres, em- 
bracing lands on both sides of Murderer's creek. Here, on Couwan- 
ham's Hill, so-called from its aboriginal owner, but now known as Plum 
Point, Mc(rregorie built his cabin, and in the same vicinity were those of 
his associates, William Chambers, William Sutherland and one Collum, 
while on the north side of the creek David Toshuck and his servant 
Daniel Maskrig established a trading post. (See Ruttenber's History of 
Orange County, p. 21, 22 ) 



32 HISTOKY OF DEEEPAEK. 

that distance which had other Indian names ; one at 
my present residence ; one at the Neversink river, near 
the aqueduct of the canal ; one at the present resi- 
dence of CoL Peter P. Swartwout t, and two between 
that and the first Peenpack locaUty. In these several 
places resided small collections of Indians near living 
springs and streams of water. 

When this place was first settled, it was about 25 or 
30 miles distant from the nearest settlement of white 
people, which latter was on the road from here to 
Kingston. Two of the first pioneers, Cuddeback and 
Gumaer, Avere from France and of families who were 
in comfortable circumstances of life, which appears 
evident from what has been said by them in relation 
thereto, and from the fact that they had been brought 
up without doing any manual labor. It was said that 
their hands were so soft and tender Avhen they first 
came into Amarica that they blistered and bled when 
they first labored for a living in this country. The 
famil}' of Cuddeback were in a trading business, in 
which Cuddeback had served as clerk. It was said the 
family of Gumaer were rich and in possession of large 
bills of exchange, for which they could not get money 
before he had to flee to escape persecution or death. 
From a certificate of his, in the French language, in 
relation to his churcji membership and character, dated 
the 20th of April, 1686, it appears that he then was in 
France and about 20 years of age. In 1685, the edict 
of Nantes was revoked by Louis XIV., King of France, 
whereby the Huguenots became unprotected by the 
laws of that country and exposed to the vengeance of 

t Now (I889) owned and occupied by Benjamin Swartwout. 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK^ . 33" 

the Catholics, who were the most numerous and power- 
ful class of people in that country, and, after they be- 
came unrestrained, exercised their power to torture 
and murder the former, and to plunder and destroy 
their property, which caused a flight of thousands of 
them from France into other countries, in which the 
two individuals mentioned made their escape from it: 

The name Cuddeback, as now written and Codeback 
as written in the patent, must both differ from the 
original orthography. Caddeback has said that his 
name was that of a certain city in France. On exam- 
ining an ancient gazetteer I find the orthography of 
one city in that country to be " Caudebec," which, in 
the French tongue, has the same oral sound as that of 
Codeback in the English tongue. 

The Rev. Henry Morris, of Cuddebackville, has fur- 
nished me with some historical accounts from Malte 
Brun's Universal Geography, Vol. 6, being the follow- 
ing notice of Caudebec : 

" Caudebec was formerly the capitol of Caux, a 
small country in which agriculture has attained to a 
high degree of perfection, where every house, sur- 
rounded by trees of different sorts, contributes to adorn 
the different sites ; iadeed, the country, watered by the 
Seine from Havre to Eouen, may vie with the vaunted 
banks of the Seine. Caudebec was a flourishing town 
before the revocation of the edict of Nantes ; it was 
almost ruined in consequence of that impolitic 
measure, and, altliou jjh it possesses a convenient har- 
bor, the population does not exceed three thousand 
sonls. It is situated in the district of Yvetot, a small 
town of which the lords before the rei^jn of Louis XI. 



34 . HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

were styled kings by their vassals." 

Morris further states that " Candebec is situated in 
the department of the Lower Seine, in which are the 
following towns : Lillebonne, Rouen, Elbeuf, Gournay 
and Aumale," and judges that it lies on the river 
Seine between Paris and the English Channel, and be- 
longs to that part of Erance that anciently was called 
Normandy. 

I feel very thankful for this information. It reminds 
me of certain occurrences which attended Cuddeback 
and Gumaer at the time of their flight from France, 
and all in connection gives me reason to think that 
both of them resided in the capital mentioned. 

Caudebec said that the vessel in which he escaped 
from his country had many wheat bread passengdr^ on 
it, who, after a few days' sailing, began to complain of 
their fare on the vessel, and that they could not live on 
the diet furnished, when the same consisted of plenty of 
bread, meat, beans, and other vegetables, and such eat- 
ables as were generally had on ships, but were inferior 
to such as they had been habituated to. As for him- 
self, he said he thought he could do well enough on such 
victuals, but, he said, before they arrived at their place 
of destination, provisions became scarce and they be- 
gan to have gootl reason to complain. From which, it 
appears, that their voyage must have been retarded by 
contrary winds, or a circuitous route, to avoid being 
taken by their enemies. I have also understood that 
Gumaer lived in a city, and, when his enemies sought 
for him, he was reading in a garden, where he was in- 
formed of his enemies searching for him ' and he fled 
to the top of one of the houses, where he hid. Now, 



HIBTORY OF DEERPARK. 35 



as it appears that this city was a flourisliing place be- 
fore it became reduced by the persecutions mentioned 
and suffered much in consequence of the same, and, as 
one of those two individuals bore the name of the 
town, it appears very probable that the passengers in 
the vessel mentioned were all from this capital. 

I have been informed that Caudebec sometimes re- 
lated the manner in which the Protestants, or Hugue- 
nots, were tortured and murdered, one of which I still 
remember, but consider it too shocking to our feelings 
to embrace it in this work, being worse, in my view, 
than the vile Nero's project of employing dogs to kill 
Christians. These innocent people in the early days 
of Christianity suffered great persecutions from those 
who were inimical to their professions and doctrines. 
It seems strange that after their doctrine became popu- 
lar, the greatest proportion of those who embraced it 
in France became as cruel as the monster Nero, who 
had the power to exhibit to the world his thirst for im- 
posing on mankind the numerous cruelties he caused 
to be inflicted. He became so destitute of the feelings 
of humanity that he caused even his own. mother to be 
put to death to satisfy an unnatural curiosity. Also 
the great moralist, Seneca, who had been his tutor, 
did not escape his jealous disposition, but was put to 
death according to his orders. All his impositions for 
self present gratification will remain an everlasting 
stain on his character of the blackest dye, and the suf- 
ferings he caused to be endured must have affected 
thousands of his subjects. 

Now, all these acts are only as a drop of Avater in a 
bucket to like acts unnecessarily im]iosed from time to 



36 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

time on the Roman people and other nations, bj ruling 
characters of Roman dominions. 

What shall we think of mankind, who, for self-exal- 
tation, have so overcome all those tender feelings im- 
planted in their natures as to kill, murder and plunder 
each other without any just cause, but merely to sat- 
isfy the cravings of men who were a curse to the 
world ? I do not know of any species of creatures on 
tlie globe who have acted as cruel as human beings 
have done in this respect. And'by taking a view of 
the sins of the ancient nations, Avho have been des- 
troyed, it appears that good reason existed for their 
destruction, and that all the animal tnbes have yielded 
more to the government aud laws of their Creator than 
mankind. 

The name Gumaer, as now written, was on the cer- 
tificate written "Guimar." In another writing, which 
gave Gumaer the right of citizenship in the English 
territories, it was written " Gujanard." This writing 
was also found among the papers formerly of Peter 
Gumaer, jr., now (^1858) in possession of his sOn-in- 
law, Solomon Van Etten, Esq. It is probable that the 
names Gomar, Guymard and Guimar, in France, orig- 
inated from one of those names, the last of which is 
the name of a certain town within the French territo- 
ries. I liave never seen the handwriting of Cuddeback 
or Gumaer. Tlie children of the first families were 
not educated, in consequence of which, when it became 
necessary to write their names in their business trans- 
actions, ttc, the same was done in the Dutch tongue, 
without any other guide tlian that of the oral sound, 
which of the latter name had become somewhat 



HISTORY (> 0F ; DEERP ARK. 37 

broader among tlie Dutch than what it was originally ; 
aiid the French sound of " mar " Avtis altered in the 
Dutch sound of " maer," which is the same as that of 
" maur " in the English tongue. 

A hast}^ flight of these two individuals prevented 
them from being furnished Avitli sufficient funds for a 
livelihood^ in consequence of which it -was concluded 
that two sisters of Cuddeback, v who AV:ere to leave 
France afterwards and meet them at their place of des- 
tination (wliich, the writer has understood, was to be 
England, but it may have been in Holland), were to 
bring money for setting up a business of trade. It is 
probable that there was an intended marriage of Gu- 
maer with one of those sisters. They did not arrive at 
the appointed time, and, after all hope of their coming 
was given up, these two young men embarked for 
America and landed in the State of Mar3dand, which 
passage exhausted all their money, and here they be- 
gan to experience the want of it. After a short stay, 
they came into the State of 'New York, where both en- 
tered into a state of matrimony, Guddeback with a 
daughter of Benjamin Provost, who was in a trading 
business either in the city of New" York or somewhere 
in the vicinity of the Hudson river, whereby he became 
related to some SwartAVout families, which probably 
led to an association of Cuddeback, the three Swart- 
wouts and other companions to move into this part of 
the country. Peter, son of the first Gumaer, has said 
that his son Elias took after the Deyo family, which 
leads us to infer that Gumaer's wife w^as of a Deyo 
family. 

The name of the father of the three Swartwouts is 
not known, but we have reason to believe it was 



38 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

Gerarclus, as this is a name which has been given to at 
least one member of each Swartwout generation from 
the first in this neighborhood to the present ; and also 
m the family of Harmanus Yan Inwegen, whose wife 
was a Swartwout, and the name of their only son was 
Gerardus, which name has also continued in his family 
descendants to the present time. The name Jaco- 
bus (James) and the name Samuel, are Swartwout 
names, and have continued in those families to the 
present time. In the early part of the settlement here, 
there were two Swartwouts who sometimes came over 
here from the east side of the Hudson river (probably 
from Dutchess or AVestchester counties) to see their 
relatives here. The name of one of them was Jacobus 
(James), and he was generally called Dickke Jacobus 
(Thick James), in consequence of his bodily thickness. 
It was said he was uncommonly broad and thick 
around his shoulders and breast, and unusually strong. 
It is probable that the Swartwouts in this place either 
came from the city of New York or from one of the 
counties on the east side of the Hudson river, and that 
their ancestry emigrated from Holland into this coun- 
try at an early period of its settlement for advancing 
their interests. 

Cuddeback, Gumaer and one of the Swartwouts 
were the only three of the first settlers who remained 
in the present town of Deerpark, and they became the 
owners of the land granted by the patent ; and having 
become too weak to defend their possessions against 
Jersey claimants, they let Harmanus Yan Inwegen have 
some of their lands to come and reside here and help 
defend their possessions. He was a bold, strong and 
resolute man, on whom much reliance was placed. He 



. HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 39 

was originally from Holland, and in the early part of 
liis life liad been a seafaring man. At a certain time 
lie was at the house of Cuddeback, and on hearing 
him read that part of history which relates to Hindoo 
women suffering themselves to be burned, after the 
death of their husbands, in case of being the survivors, 
said that his own eyes had seen what he (Cuddeback) 
was reading, and mentioned the place of the occur- 
rence and manner in which it was transacted. Van 
Inwegen had married a sister of the three Swartwouts. 

It is somewhat uncertain which of the three Swart- 
wouts remained in this neighborhood, but as the seats 
of Bernardus and Thomas became vacated, and An- 
thony's continued to be occupied by Van Inwegen 
after Samuel and James Swartwout removed more dis- 
tantly from the neighborhood first settled, I will make 
use of his name as the father of the two latter. An- 
other reason is that the seats of Bernardus and Thomas 
became possessed by the second Peter Gumaer. He 
bought the rights of two Swartwouts. 

It is not known what became of the families of Tyse 
and Jamison, nor where the two Swartwouts went, who 
removed from here. There are Swartwouts down the 
Delaware river, in the State of Pennsylvania, or New 
Jersey, among whom the name of Bernardus has been 
kept up. These probably are descendants of Ber- 
nardus who settled here. There also are Swartwouts 
on the Susquehanna. These may be descendants of 
Thomas Swartwuut. 

After the seven first settlers had resided here a few 
years, they sent Jacob Cuddeback to the Governor of 
the New York Colony to obtain a patent to cover as 
much land as they intended to occupy, which was 



40 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

granted tlie 14tli of October, 1697, for 1,200 
acres land to Jacob Cuddeback, Thomas Swart- 
wout, Anthony Swartwout, Bernardus Swart wout, 
Jan Tjse, Peter Germar and David Jamison, 
who, as near as can be determined, continned to 
be the only settlers of white people in this part of the 
country for a term of more than 20 years. The 
strongest evidence of this is that the children of the 
first settlers between this place and the Delaware river 
were contemporary with the grandchildren of the fii'st 
settlers, and that some of the children of the first 
pioneers were among the first settlers of both the lands 
between this place and the Delaware river, and a few 
miles down the same in the north part of New Jersey. 
One daughter of Jacob Cuddeback, one of Yan Inwe- 
gen, one of Swartwout, and a sister of the second Pe- 
ter Gumaer's wife, were among the first settlers be- 
tween this place and the Delaware ; and one son and 
four daughters of Cuddeback were among the first in 
the north of New Jersey. 

There were two neighborhoods in this town, one of 
which, formerly known by the name of Peenpack 
neighborhood, extended southwest to the old count}^ 
line, formerly between Orange and Ulster counties, 
and the other extended from that line southwest to the 
Delaware river, and was in the first instance desis- 
nated " oyer the river neighborhood," in consequence 
of its population then being principall}' on the east 
side of the river, but after the increase of inhabitants 
on the west side of the river the whole district was 
generall}^ termed " the lower neighborhood." 



ANCIENT FAMILIES 

OF THE 

PEENPACK NEIGHBORHOOD. 

FAMILY OF JACOB CUDDEBACK AND WIFE, MARGARET PRO- 
VOST — (Jacob Cuddeback lived to be about 100 years 
old.) 

First son, Benjamin Cuddeback, never married. He, 
in the first instance, lived with his brother AVilliam, 
and afterwards with his nephew, Benjamin Cuddeback. 
(Lived to be about 80 years old.) 

Second son, William Cuddeback, married Jemima 

Elting, daughter of ^ Elting of the Old Paltz. 

He became owner of his father's farm, and resided on 
the premises afterwards occupied by his son. Captain 
Cuddeback. (Lived to be about 74 years old.) 

Third son, James Cuddeback, married Neelje Decker, 
daughter of Christopher Decker, of Shipikunk, in the 
north part of New Jersey, where Cuddeback became a 
resident. (Died about 30 years of age.) 

Fourth son, Abraham Cuddeback, married Esther 
Swartwout, daughter of Major James Swartwout, of 
Peenpack. They resided near the present dwelling 
house of Peter L. Gumaer until they became old and 
were removed by their sons to Skaneateles Lake, in this 



42 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

State, where two of his sons lived. He owned a farm 
where he first resided. (Abraham Cuddeback died at 
Skaneateles Aug. 18th, 1796, aged 83 years. His wife 
died April 11th, 1798, aged 65.) 

One daughter, Dinah Cuddeback, married Abraham 
Louw, a son of Tys Louw t, of Kochester, in Ulster 
county. He was a blacksmith and settled in Shipi- 
kunk, in the north part of New Jersey, and became 
owner of a good farm, of which Wilhemus Freden- 
burgh, Peter and Joseph Van Noy and James and 
Evart Yan Auken afterwards became owners. (Dinah 
lived to be about 74 years old.) 

Another daughter, Eleanor Cuddeback, married 
Evart Hornbeck, son of Hornbeck, of Ro- 
chester, in Ulster county. They first settled on the 

! Tys Louw and wife commenced life poor. The writer knows noth- 
ing respecting their ancestors. He was an indolent, nou-providing and 
intemperate man. She was the reverse of him m those respects; and 
the whole business of the family devolved on her, in which he exercised 
no manner of control, but left the whole business of the family to be 
managed according to her direction. He was naturally good-natured, 
and very indulgent to her. She furnished him daily with such small por- 
tions of liquor as would not intoxicate him. She entered into the busi- 
ness of manufacturing linen, both for the wearing apparel of the family, 
and to defray the other expenses, and did yearly manufacture more than 
a supply for the same, t^e surplus of which she took to New York at the 
Tend of every year, and for it procured such articles of trade as her 
spinsters and neighbors generally wanted to purchase, and in this way 
she made a yearly addition to her stock of goods and thus obtained 
wealth and credit, sO that she became enabled to keep a good assortment 
of such goods as wCre salable in her time and commanded quite an ex- 
pensive trade'. vShe also carried on the blacksmith business, for which 
she employed a workman and put her own son, Abraham Louw, with him 
in the shop to learn the trade. Not long before her decease she had told 
a confidential friend that she had ^1,200 in money. Besides this she had 
her store of goods and other property. The ^1,200 was equal to $3,000, 
which in her time was worth about three times as much as at the present 
time. 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 43 

farm now in possession of Joseph Cuddeback in this 
town, and afterwards moved into tlie neighborhood of 
Shipikunk, in New Jersey, and became residents on or 
near the premises lately occupied by his grandson, 
Capt. Benjamin Hornbeck, where they became owners 
of a good farm. He was a blacksmith, which tvas a 
good trade in his time. (Eleanor lived to be about TO 
years.) 

Another daughter. Else Cuddeback, married Har- 

manus Yau Gorden, son of — . He 

was or became owner of the farm, which, after his 
death, was owned by his two sons, Daniel and Benja- 
min Yan Gorden, in the neighborhood of Shipikunk. 
This name (Shipikunk) originated from the Indians, 
and probably had reference to the smooth rocks 
against the side of the mountain near the neighbor- 
hood, as the name " unk" is significant of rocks. (She 
lived. to be about 80.) 

Another daughter, Maria Cuddeback, married Geo. 
Westfall, son of Westfall, of the neighbor- 
hood of Miunissing, in New Jers^}^ This was the 
ancient Indian name of the neighborhood in which 
the ancient Minisink churcli was located. Her husband 
ditdand she aiterwards married ' — - Cole. ^ 

Youngest daughter, Naomi Ciiddeback, married 
Lodiwyke Hornbeck, a widower, and son of Judge 
Jacob Hornbeck, of Rochester, in Ulster county, where 

* This woman lived to a great age. It was said of her that in early life 
she became very fleshy and was taken with a severe sickness, which re- 
duced her very low and she became lean, and having found the incon- 
venience of being fat and fleshy and fearing to become so again, she 
thereafter stinted herself in eating less than her appetite craved, and 
Jived to the age of about loo years. She had the reputation of a fine 
woman, possessed of excellent qualities of mind. 



44 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

they continued to reside till after the decease of her 

husband, whom she survived, and underwent different 

scenes in life afterwards. She had the reputation of 

a sensible woman. They had one son named Henry 

and one daughter Maria. The former had children, 

but the latter had none. The writer knows nothing in 

relation to the children of Henry. 

[There appears to have been another son of Jacob Cuddeback and 
Margaret Provost named Jacob, who was baptized in the Dutch church 
in New York, July 7th, 1706. His name is mentioned likewise in an old 
deed of his father. He married Jannetye Westbrook.] 



SECOND GENERATION. 

FAMILY OF WILLIAM CUDDEBACK AND JEMIMA ELTING. 

(Married April 8th, 1732.) 

First son, James Cuddeback, a very active young 
man, became deranged. (Lived to be about 80 years 
old.) 

Second son, Abraham Cuddeback, married Esther 
Gumaer, daughter of the second Peter Gumaer. He 
remained in the homestead of his father and became 
owner of half of his real estate. He was Captain of a 
company of militia before and during the Revolution- 
ary War. They had four sons. Col. William A. Cudde- 
back, Peter G. Cuddeback, Esq., Jacob Cuddeback and 
Cornelius Cuddeback, and two daughters — Esther, wife 
of Evart Hornbeck, and Jemima, wife of David West- 
fall. (Captain Abraham Cuddeback lived to be about 
82 years old.) 

Second son, Benjamin Cuddeback (lived to be about 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 45 

45), married Catharine Yaii Fliet, daugliter of^ Jolm 
Van Fliet, of the lower neighborhood, in this town 
He became owner of the other half of his father's 
estate. They had four sons, William, Henr}^ Levi and 
Benjamin Cuddeback, Esq.. and three daughters — 
Syntche, wife of Simon Westfall ; Jemima, wife of. An- 
thony Van Etten. The other daughter died' young, 
and Levi, after he became a young man, died suddenly 
of cholic. 

Fourth son, Roulif Cuddeback (lived to be about 50 
years old), never married. He fought the Indian, as 
mentioned in Eager's History, t 

Only daughter, Sarah Cuddeback, married Daniel 
Van Fliet, son of John Van Fliet, of the lower neigh- 
borhood. They owned the farm heretofore sold by 
Samuel Cuddeback and William Donoldson to Ezekiel 
P. Gumaer and brothers (nearly one-half mile south 
of Port Clinton.) They had a son, Solomon, and a 
daughter, Sarah. (Mahakamack church records give the 
baptism of four more children — Mardochai, Willem, 
Thomas, Jacomyntje — 1739, 1759.) 



FAMILY OF TAMES CUDDEBACK AND WIFE, NEYLTJE 
DECKER. 

An only son, James Cuddeback, married Neyltje 
Westbrook, daughter of Westbrook, who re- 
sided on the east side of Shawangunk mountain, in the 
northeast part of New Jersey. He, a poor man, by 
persevering industry became owner of a valuable farm. 



t This was a hand-to-hand encounter with the Indian, near where Sol- 
Van Fleet now lives, in which neither were victors, and they parted, each 
glad to get away from the other. • 



46 HISTORY OF DEERrARK. 

He had tliree sons — Jolm, James and Ricliard, and 
three daughters. Eleanor married Samuel Shelley, of 
Peppercotting (Papakating) valley, south of Decker- 
town, N. J. ; Mary married Samuel Adams, of Decker- 
town ; another ' daughter married James Wilson, of 
New Jersey. These sons all moved to Niagara county, 
N. Y., where their descendants are quite numerous. 
They spell their name Cudeback, using but one d. 



FAMILY OF ABRAHAM CUDDEBACK AND W^IFE, ESTHER 
SWARTWOUT. 

First son, James Cuddeback, married Scynta Yan 
riiet, daughter of John Yan- Fliet, of the lower neigh- 
borhood. 

Second sou, Peter Cuddeback, married Margaret De 
Witt, daughter of Jacob R. De Witt, of this neighbor- 
hood. 

Third son, Abraham Cuddeback, married Jane De 
AYitt, also a daughter of J. R. De Witt. All the de- 
scendants of these sons are in Western New York, near 
Skaneateles. 

Fourth son, Philip Cuddeback, never married. He 
died, when a young man, by over heating himself in 
seeking to stop a tire in the woods. (Mahackamack 
church records show the baptism of two daui;liters 
besides of Abraham Cuddeback — Annatje'and Esther.) 



FAMILY OF ABRAHAM LOUW AND DINAH CUDDEBACK, HIS 

WIFE. (Married May 31st, 1738.) 
First daughter, Jane Louw, married Jacob Yan 
Etten, son of John Yan Etten, who resided near the 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 47 

Delaware, in Peniis3'lvaina or New Jersey. They be- 
came owners of tke Louw farm, in New Jersey. They 
had three daughters — Dinah, Margaret and Sarah, who 
became motherless soon after the birth of the last. 

Second daughter, Naomi Louw, married Ezekiel Gu- 
maer. (For their history refer to his name in advance.) 

Third daughter, Margaret Louw, married Martin 

Westbrook, son of Westbrook. He became 

owner of a farm in New Jersey, on which his daughter- 
in-law, Nancy AVestbrook, now resides. They had one 
son, Abraham, and one daughter, Mar3^ 

Fourth daughter, Sarah Louw, married MoSes De- 
puy, sou of Benjamin Depuy, Esq., of the Peenpack 
neighborhood. They had three sons — Benjamin, Abra- 
ham and Martin Depuy. The father was drowned in 
the Neversink river by falling from a raft at the close 
of the war. 

By a second marriage with Jonathan Stanton, they 
had two sons — AVilliam and Moses Stanton. They 
owned a farm and resided on it, at the late residence 
of Harmanus Cuddeback, for some years, and ex- 
changed it for a farm at Wui'tsboro, of which the two 
sons became owners. (Mahackamack church records 
give the baptism of a son Jacobus ; ba]:)tized April 23, 
1744.) 



FAMILY OF EYART HORNBECK AND AYIFE, ELEANOR CUD- 
DEBACK. 

First son, James Hornbeck, married Margaret Ennes, 
daughter of William Ennes. He became owner of a 
part of liLS father's farm. They had sons. 



48 ' HISTORY OF DEERrARK. 

namely, Evart, — and — '■ 

daughters, namely (Elizabeth Eiiues, baptized April 29, 
1772, and Lena, born Dec. 23. 1780.) 

Second son, Joseph Hornbeck, married Lydia West- 
brook, daughter of Jacob Westbrook, of Shipikunk 
neighborhood. He became owner of a part of his 
father's farm. They had three sons and one daughter, 
Jacob, Benjamin and Saffrine (Sever3me) and Lydia. 

Third sod, Benjamin Hornbeck, married Rebecca 

Wells, daughter of Wells. He died in early 

life. They had (two) sons, namely, (Joseph, baptized 
Oct. 29, 1780, and Jacobus, born Feb. 23, 1780), and 

daughters, namely, . Sara, 

bap. Nov. 25, 1776. 

Fourth son, Evart Hornbeck, married Esther Cud- 
deback, daughter of Capt. Abraham Cuddeback. They 
occupied the farm now owned by Joseph Cuddeback. 
They had five sons — Joseph (bap. Feb. 16, 1785), Ja- 
cob, Abraham (bap. June 22, 1783), Benjamin and 
Cornelius, and two daughters — Eleanor and Jemima. 

Daughters Maria Hornbeck married James Bose- 
crantz. They became owners of a good farm in West- 
fall township, in Pennsylvania. They had five daught- 
ers, namely, Betsy, wife of Manual Brink ; Len i, Avife 
of Martyne Cole ; Catherine, whose first husband was 
Daniel Decker, and her second Crissie Bull ; Boanna, 
wife of Saunder (^ilexander) Ennis ; Diana, wife of 
John B. Quick. 

Daughter Margaret Hornbeck married Isaac Van 
Auken. They resided in the house afterwards occu- 
pied by their son, James Van Auken, and owned a 
farm of which his sons James and Evert Van Auken 



HISTORY OF DEEEPARK. 49 

became po=?sessed. They had three sons — Joseph 
(bap. Feb. 12, 1758), James (bap. April 8, 1764), and 
Evart, and three daughters, namely — (Seletie, bap. Oct. 
17, 1773 ; Seletta, bap. Nov. 25,"^ 1776 ; Grietje, bap. 
June 23, 1778.) 

Daughter Lydia Hornbeck married John Westbrook, 
son of Westbrook, of Minnissing, in New Jer- 
sey, • They owned a good farm and had three daught- 
ers, one of whom died young. The names of the two 
surviving were Catharine, born July 15, 1757, and 
other records give the names of Jane, who married Levi 
Van Etten ; Maria, who married Cornelius Westbrook ; 
John I., who was blind ; Solomon, grandfather of John 
I. Westbrook, of present (1889) firm of Westbrook & 
Stoll ; Saffrein (Severyn), who married Blandina West- 
brook. 

Daughter Eleanor Hornbeck married Daniel Ennes, 
a blacksmith, and son of William Ennes. They had 
two sons — James and Alexander, and some daughters, 
namely. 

He commenced with small means, and, by persever- 
ing industry, acquired a valuable property, viz : one 
farm, where liis son Alexander resided, in New Jersey, 
and a farm in the vicinity of Owasco lake, in Nevv- 
York. 



FAMILY OF HARMANUS VAN GOIIDEN AND WIFE, ELSIE CUD- 

DEBACK. (Married June lltli, 1727.) 

First son, Daniel Van Gorden,~ married Hannah 
Westbrook, daughter of Tjeick V. Westbrook, 
of a place now known by the name of West- 
brookvilie. They had three or more sons — Levi, 



50 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 



Abraham, Martin (born Nov. 5, 1786), , and 

three or more daughters— Mary (bap. Oct. 17, 1773), 
Else (bap. June 14, 1775), Eleanor and Lena (bap. 
June 1, 1777.) He became owner of a part of his 
father's farm, on which they resided. 

Second son, Benjamin Yan Gorden, marred . 

He became owner of the other part of his father's 

farm. They had sons, namely, , 

^ , and daughters, namely, 

, . One daughter, Yan 

Gorden, married Wilhelmus Fredenburgh, of Shipi- 
kunk, where he became owner of a farm. They had 
five sons — Aaron, Benjamin, Daniel, Joshua and Heze- 
kiah, and daughters, namely, 

Aaron became the greatest historian of his time of 
the ancients in this valley within his vicinity. 



FAMILY OF ANTHONY SWARTWOUT AND WIFE. 

One son, Samuel Swartwout, married Esther Gu- 
maer, daughter of Peter Gumaer. He owned the 
j^remises on which tlie writer now resides, a ad his 
house stood where the road from my house comes to 
the spring brook, which brook, in his time, was about 
8 or 10 rods from the foot of the hill, and on the flat 
betAveen the hill and brook some Indians continued to 
reside until the P^evolutionary War commenced. 

Another son, James (Jacobus) Swartwout, mirried 
Anne Gumaer, also a daughter of Peter Gumaer. He 
resided where Col. Peter P. Swartwout now resides, 
and became major of a regiment of militia, which ex- 
tended over a wide district of territory in the present 
county of Orange. 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 51 

One (laiigliter, Jane Swartwont, married John (Jan) 
Van riiet, wlio owned the farm now occupied by 
Micliael and Solomon Van Fliet t 



FAMILY OF SAMUEL SWARTWOUT AND WIFE, ESTHER GuMAER. 

The only daughter, Elizabeth Swartwout, married 
Benjamin Depuy, a son of Moses Depuy, of Rochester, 
in Ulster county. Depuy, after marriage., became a 
resident with his father-in-law and afterwards the 
owner of all his estate. He, after marriage, biiilt, and, 
after the Revolutionary War ended, rebuilt the house 
of my present residence. He was for many years a 
Justice of the Peace ; and, aiear the end of his life, re- 
moved to Owasco, where all his children, excepting 
one or two, had previously settled. They had five 
sons — Moses, Samuel, John, Benjamin and James, and 
three daughters — Margaret, Esther and Eleanor. His 
descendants are now all in western countries. 



FAMILY OF MAJOR JAMES (jACOBUS) SWARTWOUT AND WIFE, 
ANNA GUMAER. 

First son, Gerardus Swjirtwout, was killed by the 
Indians in the time of the French war in company 
with two soldiers, who also were killed at Westbrook- 
ville about five miles from Gumaer's fort. 

Second son, Philip Swartwout, married Antje Wyn- 

koop, a daughter of Wynkoop, of Rochester or 

its vicinity. He became owner of his father's estate, 



t Now (1889) occupied by Solomon Van Fleet, a nephew of Michael 
and Solomon. 



52 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

and resided at tlie present residence of Col. Swart- 
Avout. He was a Justice of tlie Peace before and in the 
beginning of the Eevohitionary War, and one of tlie 
Committee of Safety. He was killed by the Indians 
when they invaded this neighborhood, and his two 
eldest sons were killed at the same time and another 
son wns badl}^ wounded. An Indian pursued his son 
James a half-mile across lots and fences, but could not 
overtake him. Swartwout and first wife had four 
sons — Gerardus (bap. Aug. 26, 1759), Philip, James 
(bap. Sept. 18, 1750), and Cornelius (bap. June 24, 1752.) 
(The Mahackamack church records give the baptism 
also of another son, Cornelius Wynkoop, bap. March 
20, 1763), and one daughter, Anna (bap. Juae 17, 1754.) 
By a second marriage with Deborah Schoonover, he 
had one son, Peter 'Swartwout. 

One daughter, Esther Swartwout, married Abraham 
Cuddeback, as has been mentioned. (For their history 
refer back to their names.) 

Another daughter, Jane Swartwout, married 

, of Rochester, Ulster Co. 

Another daughter, Swartv»'Out, married 

— , Durland, of the town of Warwick, in Orange 

county. There are many of their descendants in this 

county. They had sons, namely, , 

, and ■ daughters, namely, — ■ — , 



FAMILY OF .JOHN (JAN) VAN FLIET AND WIFE, JANE 
SWARTWOUT. 

One son, James (Jacobus) Yan Fliet, married Mar- 
garet Palmatier. He became owner of his father's 



HISTORY OF DEERrARK. 53 



farm, now occupied by liis sons, Michael and Solomon. 
They had four sons — John, Thomas, Michael (bap. 

Ja». 22, 1783), and Solomon, and daughters, 

namely (Esyntje, baptized Oct. 29th, 1780 ; Elizabeth, 
born March, 1785 ; Clara.) 

Another son, Daniel Yan Fliet, married Sarah Cud- 
deback, of Peenpack. For their history refer back to 
their names. 

Another son (Samuel, married Tjaetje Cole, married 
by J. C. Fryenmoet, Nov. 26th, 1752.) (See Mahacka- 
mack church records.) 

One daughter, Deborah Van Fliet, married John 
Decker, who resided where Simon Westfall now lives, 
and owned the old Decker farm at that place and a 
farm east of Shawangunk mountain, which his sons, 
Levi and Isaiah,, occupied after their father's decease. 
They had three sons — Levi (bap. Feb. 12, 1758), Isaiah 

and Isaac, and daughters — Margerj^ (born Aug. 

31, 1768), Seletta (bap. Jan. 8, 1772.) 

J. D.'s first wife, Elizabeth De Witt, was a daughter 
of Jacob De Wi^t, of Rochester. 

Another daughter, Catharine Van Fliet, married 
Benjamin Cuddeback, son of William Cuddeback. 
For their liistory refer baak to their names. 

(The Mahackamack church records show the bap- 
tism of Marie, Oct. 23d, 1743, and another daughter, 
Marya, May lOtli, 1717.)- 



FAMILY OF PETER GUIMAR AND WIFE, ESTHER. 

A copy of his certificate of church membership in 
the French language, viz : 

Nous, sonssequez ancien da consistoire, de Moire, 



54 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

on I'absence de Monsieur Morin, nostre Ministre, cer- 
tifions que Pierre Guimar, de ous on enui von fail, ei a 
tousjours fair profession de nostre religion, en laquelle 
il osesen sans commetlie aveum scandalle qui soit venu 
a nostre connoissance qui empesclie, quil re j^^^isse 
estre admisula participation de nos Sacrements. En 
foy dequoy nons luy avons signele preveur certificon a 
Moire, ningtiesme 8 avril, 1686. 

S. Avillaguer. 

Losary Cillfand. 
F. Guymard. 

[translation.] 
We, the Elders of the ancient Church of Moire, in 
the absence of our minister, Mr. Morin, do certify that 
Peter Guimar, aged about 20 years; has made a profes- 
sion of our religion, and that he has never (so far as we 
know) committed any act which should prevent him 
from the participation of our sacraments. In witness 
Avhereof we have signed the foregoing certificate, at 
Moire, the 20th day of April, 1686. 

L. Avillaguer. 

Losary Cillfand. 
F. Guymard. 
• [The above translation was made by Hulda Morris, 
daughter of Rev. Henry Morris.] 



FAMILY OF PETER GUMAER AND AVIFE, ESTHER. 

Among the papers formerly in possession of Ezekiel 
Gumaer, Avas found a paper in the handwriting of 
Thomas Kyte, who formerly was a schoolmaster in the 
Peenpack neighborhood, which contain the dates of 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 55 

the Inrtbs of the children of Peter Giimaer, in the 
Dutch tongue, of which the following is an abstracted 
copy, viz : 
Dochter Anna was geboren de 30st Mart, 1693. 

" Esther was geboren de 5d von May, in het 

yaer, 1697. 
Dochter Ragel is geboren de 8st von February, in het 

yaer 1700. 
Dochter Maria de 8st von December, in het yaer 1702. 
" Elisabetli de 22st von Mart, in het yaer 1705. 
Soon Peter de 15 de von November, in het yaer 1708. 

This is in ( In het yaer 1710 is geboren Taitie De 

a different I ^-rr.. , ' -n , r^ 

1 T -^ Wit, liuys vrow von Peter Gumar, is 
hand- I 

writing. [ geoveiieden de 12d November, 1756. 

tTRANSLATION.] 

Daughter Anna was born the 30th March, in the year 

1693. 
Daughter Esther was born the 5th of Ma}^, in the year 

1697. 
Daughter Rachel was born the 8th of February, in the 

year 1700. 
Daughter Mary the 8th of December, in the year 1702. 
Elizabeth the 22d of March, in the year 

1705. 
Son Peter the 15th of November, in the year 1708. 

In the year 1710 was born Charity De Witt, wife of 
Peter Gumaer. She died the 12th November, 1756. 



MARRIAGES, ETC., OF THE FIRST GENERATION. 

One daughter, Esther Guimar, married Samul Swart- 
wout, son of Anthony Swartwout. (For their history 



56 HISTORY -OF DEEIirARK. 

aucl of their descendants, refer back to their names.) 
Another daughter, Anne Guimar, married James 

(Jacobus) Swartwout. (For their and descendants' 

history, refer back to their names.) 

Another daughter, Guimar, married Dubois, 

of Eoch ester, in Ulster county. -He became a wealthy 

farmer. They had two daughters, namely, and 

Another daughter, Guimar, married Lode- 

Avyke, son of Judge Jacob Hornbeck, of Rochester. 
They had three sons — Isaac, Philip and Henrj^. After 
her death he married Naomi Cuddeback, as mentioned. 

Another daughter (Mary) Guimar, married (Jan) 
Elting, of Old Shawangunk, where he occupied a farm. 
They had one son, Peter. 

One only son, Peter Guimar, married Charity De 
Witt, daughter of Jacob De Witt, of Rochester. He 
became owner of all his father's real estate, excepting 
what was granted to Samuel and James Swartwout. It 
was said the father gave a good portion to each of his 
daughters for that time. About two or three years be- 
fore the French war commenced, Peter Guimar built a 
stone house (see page 29), 40x45 feet on the ground, 
a cellar under the Avhole, and a high, roomy chamber 
above tlie upper floor. Along two sides, below the 
eaves of the roof, were made port-holes through which 
to shoot, either Avhen the house was built or the war 
commenced. This was a lucky transaction for himself 
and neighbors. It was the largest house in this part of 
the country, and best location in this neighborhood for 
a fort ; and when the French war commenced, a picket 
fort was erected on its front and rear sides, and all the 
families of the neighborhood moved into it, excepting 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 57 

those women and children wlio were sent to their rela- 
tives in Rochester, Old Paltz and other places. A 
barn, which the father had built, was 50 by 60 feet on 
the ground, its floor 30 by 60 feet, a stable on each side 
60 feet long. This was an additional advantage. 



SECOND GENERATION. 

FAMILY OF THE SECOND PETER GUMAER AND WIFE, CHARITY 
DE WITT. 

In his time the family name began to be written 
" Gumaer," and has continued to be so written by his 
descendants, and that orthography now used will from 
hence be continued. 

The following is an abridged copy of the last part of 
the Dutch record heretofore mentioned, to wit : 
Dochter Esther geboren de 2d Januar^^ 1729-30. 
Soon Peter geboren de 19 February-, 1731. 
Dochter Maregretj geboren de 12de van Mey, 1736. 
Soon Jacob De Witt geboren de 12de van December, 

1739. 
Soon Ezekiel geboren de 29st van December, 1742. 
Dochter Maria geboren de 16de van July, 1715. 
Soon Elias geboren de 22st van January, 1748. 
Dochter Elizabeth geboren de 5de van November, 

1750. Sye was overhiden de 2de van Jul}^, 1752. 

[TRANSLATION.] 

Daughter Esther born the 2d January, 1729-30. 
Son Peter born the 19th February, 1731. 
Daughter Margaret born the 12tli of May, 1736. 
Son Jacob De Witt born the 12th of December, 1739. 



58 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

Son Ezekiel born the 29tli of December, 1742. 

Daughter Mary born the 16th of July, 1745. 

Son Elias born the 22d of January, 1748. 

Daughter Elizabeth born the 5th of November, 1750. 

She died the 2d of July, 1752. 

Oldest daughter, Esther Gumaer, married Abraham 
Cuddeback. For their and descendants' history, refer 
back to their names. 

Oldest son, Peter Gumaer, married Hannah Van 
Inwegen, daughter of Gerardus Van Inwegen. He 
became owner of a part of his father's estate, on which 
he lived during his life. They had three sons — Jacob, 
Gerardus and Peter, and one daughter Elizabeth. 

Daughter Margaret Gumaer married John Decker, 
son of Thomas Decker. He became owner of the farm 
now occupied by George Cuddeback t and resided on 
it during his life. They had one or more children, and 
she and they died. He afterwards married Sarah 
Hornbeck. 

Son Jacob De TVitt Gumaer married Hulda 
Decker, daughter of Thomas Decker, of the lower 
neighborhood. He became owner of a part of his 
father's estate and resided on it at the present resi- 
dence of Solomon Van Etten, Esq. J. They had two 
sons — Peter and Jacob D. Gumaer, and six daughters — 
Jane, Hannah; Elizabeth, Esther, Mary and Charity. 

Son Ezekiel Gumaer married Naomi Louw, daughter 
of Abraham Louw^, of Shipikunk, in New Jersey. He 
remained in the homestead of his father and owned a 



t Now (1889) occupied by Henry Cuddeback. 
J Now (1889) occupied by Cornelius Caskey. 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. .59 

part of liis farm. They had two sons — Peter E. and 
Abraham. The hitter died when a small boy. 

Daughter Mary Giimaer married James Devens. 
They became owners of tlie old Devens' farm in Mam- 
akating, on which they continued to reside during their 
lives. They had five sons — Elias, Jacob, Peter, James 
and Abraham, and one daughter Charity. 

Youngest son, Elias Gumaer, married Margaret De- 
puy, daughter of Benjamin Depuy, Esq., of this neigh- 
borhood. He first had a farm of his father, on which 
he resided for some years. This he exchanged for the 
farm on which he last resided and sold to Abraham 
Caddeback, Esq. He and his wife, in their old age, 
removed to the western part of New York, where their 
children had previously settled. They had four sons — 
Benjamin, Elias, Samuel and Peter E. Gumaer, and 
two daughters — Charity and Elizabeth. 



FIRST GENERATION. 

FAMILY OF HARMANUS VAN INWEGEN AND WIFE, 

SWARTWOUT- 

His son, Gerardus Van Inwegen, married Jane De 
Witt, daughter of Jacob De Witt, of Rochester, in 
Ulster county. He became owner of his father's farm 
and resided where his son Cornelius lived previous to 
his removal from this neighborhood. 

His daughter, Hannah Van Inwegen, married Thos. 
Decker. He was or became owner of the present farm 



60 HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 

of George Cuddeback, and resided at his present resi- 
dence. (Now, 1889, occupied bj Hemy Cuddeback.) 



SECOND GENERATIONS 

FAMILY OF GERARDUS VAN INWEGEN AND WIFE, JANE DE 

WITT. 

First son, Harmanus Van Inwegen, married Mar- 
garet Cole, daughter of David Cole. He became 
owner of the farm now of Col. Peter Cuddeback, and 
resided near his present dwelling house. He was a 
Justice of the Peace for some years in and after the 
Revolutionary War, and also one of the Committee of 
Safety in that war. They had eight sons —Gerardus, 
David, Cornelius, Jacob, Samuel, Jacob and Josias, 
and two daughters — Charlotte and Hannah. Ge- 
rardus was killed or taken prisoner at Fort Mont- 
gomery, when it was taken, and the first Jacob died 
when about 12 or 14 years old of a short illness. 

Second son, Jacob Yan Inwegen, never married. 
He owned a part of his father's estate, which, after his 
death, became the property of his two brothers. He 
resided with his biotUer Harmanus until tlie end of 
his life. 

Third son, Cornelius Van Inwegen, married Eleanor 
AVestbrook, daughter of Terrick V. Westbiook, of now 
Westbrookville, in Ulster county (now Sullivan county, 
1889.) He continued to reside on the homestead of- 
his father, and became owner of that part of his 
father's farm. They removed, in their old age, into 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 61 

the western part of this State, where nearly all their 
children had previously settled. They had nine sons — 
Abraham, Gerardus, Daniel, John, Jacob, Levi, Cor- 
nelius, Henry and Martin, and one daughter Mary. 
Cornelius, the seventh son, died wdien a child, and 
Martin was killed b}^ lightning in driving a wagon from 
a hay-stack towards home in time of haying. Both 
horses driven by him were also killed. 

One daughter, Margaret Van Inwegen, married John 
Wallace. They resided in this town until a few years 
after the Revolutionary War, when they removed to 
Onondagua, in this State. They had one son Corne- 
lius and one daughter Jane. 

Another daugliter, Hannah Yan Inwegen, married 
Peter Gumaer, as mentioned. (For their history: r^fer 
back to their names.) 

The descendants of this last family have all moved 
into Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the western part of 
New York. . .. 

(Kingston church records show the baptism of another 
daughter Jenneke, Feb. 2d, 1735, and Mahackamack 
church records those of Tjaade, May 30th, 1739, and 
Elizabeth, March 15th, 1747.) 



SECOND GENERATION. 



FAMILY OF THOMAS DECKER AND HANNAH VAN INWEGEN. 



First son, Daniel Decker, married 



They settled in New^ Jersey, some distance down the 



62 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

Delaware river, where lie owned a farm. Tliej liad 
SODS, , , , , and 



daughters, , . 

Second son, John Decker, first married Margaret 
Gumaer ; for their history refer back to their names, 
and afterwards Sarah Hornbeck, daughter of Benja- 
min Hornbeck, of Rochester, They had two sons — 
Benjamin and Daniel, and four daughters Margaret, 
Jane, Hannah and Mary. At the commencement of 
the Revolutionary War, he became Major of a Regi- 
ment of Militia of Orange county, and, when the In- 
dians invaded the lower neighborhood, he was wounded 
by the enemy, on his return from a funeral, and nar- 
rowly escaped from being taken. 

Third son, Peter Decker, married (Catrina) Cole. 
They resided in the north part of New Jersey, and had 

two sons Thomas and John, and daughters — 

Sarah (bap. July 24, 1763), Jane. 

First daughter, Hannah Decker, married Anthony 

Van Etten, son of Van Etten, of Rochester, or 

its vicinity. He obtained a piece of land of his father- 
in-law and built the house afterwards occupied by his 
son, Henry Van Etten, on which he also erected a 
blacksmith shop, and with the help of an 
apprentice pursued the blacksmith business, of 
which he obtained a great run and became 
owner of one of the best farms in the pres- 
ent town of Deerpark. He served some years as 

a Justice of the Peace. They had sons — Levi 

(bap. Feb. 12, 1758), Henry, Thomas (bap. Sept. 8, 
1751), Anthony. (The Mahackamack church records 
gives the baptism of other children, namely : Antje, 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 63 

bap. Jan. 14, 1753 ; Jenneke, bap. Ap. 28, 1754 ; Mar- 
grieta, bap. Feb. 13, 1756 ; Alicia, bap. Aug. 19, 1759 ; 
Blandina, bap. Sept. 4, 1763 ; Maria, bap. Nov. 2, 
1765 ; Tomas, bap. October 16, 1768 ; Jacob, Oct. 29, 
1770), and daughters. 

Second daughter, Hulda Decker, married Jacob De 
Witt Gumaer. (For their history refer back to their 
names.) 

The descendants of those four ancient families are 
dispersed into different parts of our^country, and have 
become settled in different parts of New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Cal- 
ifornia, and probably in some other States and territo- 
ries ; and some, in connection with those among whom 
they have intermarried, have remained on the prem- 
ises of their forefathers and now possess nearly all the 
valuable land for agricultural purposes in the present 
town of Deerpark. 

The reader will learn from this history that generally 
the descendants of the first pioneers became farmers, 
and continued in those occupations to the end of the 
third generation ; and the greatest proportion of the 
fourth and fifth generation of the present time (1858) 
are farmers. Our ancestors were not in opulent cir- 
cumstances, but genemlly had a plenty of the neces- 
saries of life and were a thriving people, and, so far as 
the writer's knowledge extends in relation to those 
who have settled in other parts of our country, they 
have generally acquired farms. 

Jacob Cuddeback has been known to say that by 
leaving France he had been deprived of many enjoy- 
ments he might have had in that country, but for these 



64 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

sacrifices lie had the satisfactiou of leaving his pos- 
terity in a couutr}^ of good land and easily to be ac- 
quired . 

It appears that the first emigrants craved title for no 
more land than what they wanted to occupy, thinking 
that the mountainous land bordering on it would re- 
main unsold, and that they and their descendants 
could always get wood from it without paying for the 
land. This continued so for about sixty or seventy 
years, when they had to buy it at a higher price than 
they felt willing to pay for it, for a supply of fuel, 
fencing, timber, &g. The patentees now saw their 
mistake, and Jacob Cuddeback at a certain time was 
censured by his son William for not having included 
land enough in the patent to cover an additional tract 
of wood land. The old man, not relishing this, re- 
plied, " We all can see the mistake now, when it is too 
late. You have the same chance I had to provide for 
your family. See if you will do better." 

The descendants of the four pioneers have generally 
acquired as much territory as was necessary to obtain 
by the sweat of the brow comfortable livings for their 
respective families ; and not only have they obtained a 
competency for their livelihood, but a large surplus, 
which, as the avails of it, have reached all branches of 
mechanical and other business whatever in our coun- 
try ; and many of their productions, together with the 
masses of other producers, have been conveyed to 
European countries. In consequence of which they 
have been valuable citizens, and have rendered exten- 
sive benefits to mankind, from whom, in return, they 
have received sm equal amount of necessary articles 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 65 

and luxuries. The whole annual surplus amount now 
produced by the fourth and fifth generations of the 
ancient little neighborhood of Peenpack, must amount 
in value to many thousands of dollars. 



FAMILY OF JACOB R. DE WITT AND WIFE, JANE DEPUY. 

They removed from Neponaugh (Napanock), in 
Ulster county , into the neighborhood of Peenpack about 
the year ITbO. He was a son of Egbert De Witt, of 
the former place, and she was a daughter of Moses 
Depuy, of Rochester. He built the old stone and 
frame house at the Neversink river, and a grist mill 
near the present aqueduct across the river, and owned 
the farm he formerly occupied, together with those 
premises. In the commencement of the Revolutionary 
War a fort was built contiguous to his house, which 
has been termed Fort De Witt t, and he was commis- 
sioned Captain of a Company of Rangers for guarding 
this frontier. According to Eager's History, it is satis- 
factorily ascertained that De Witt Clinton was born in 
this house. The writer has also been informed by a 
near neighbor, formerly of the Clinton family, that he 
was born at that place. 

The family of Jacob R. De Witt and wife consisted 
of three sons — Moses (bap. Dec. 12, 1766), Egbert and 

t Fort De Witt was located near the Suspension Bridge which crosses 
the Neversink river, on the road leading fiom Port Jervis to Cuddeback- 
ville, about one mile south of Cuddebackville. The small house stand- 
ing (1889) near the present dwelling of Jesse Tillson, is on the foundation 
of this fort. 



66 HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 

Jacob, and seven daughters — Mary, Eacliel, 

Margaret, Jane, Hannali and Esther. 

Moses had a suitable genius for obtaining scientific 
knowledge, and an uncommon relish for the same ; he 
also was naturally a very persevering student and of 
an amiable disposition. His opportunities for obtain- 
ing education were small ; but he acquired much in 
view of the disadvantages under which he labored, 
and far beyond that of any of his contemporaries in 
this part of our country who had the same opportuni- 
ties with himself. He became employed as one of the 
under-surveyors to run the line between the State of 
New York and Pennsylvania, and afterwards one of 
the Surveyors to survey the military lands in the State 
of New York. He died about the age of 27 years, 
possessed of a very valuable property of unsettled 
lands in the district of .military lands in this State. He 
and his brother Egbert both died unmarried. 

Youngest son, Jacob, removed from this neighbor- 
hood before he arrived to manhood. 

Daughter Mary De Witt married William Rose, from 
Little Britain or its vicinity. In the time of the Rev- 
olutionary War he Avas commissioned a Captain to in- 
list a company of soldiers to serve in that war, and, 
after it ended, he became Captain of a company of 
militia. He, in the latter part of his life, owned the 
farm, mill, &c,, of his father-in-law, then deceased. 

Daughter Rachel De Witt married Robert Burnet, 
of Little Britain, where he owned and occupied a 
farm. He has served in different county and State 
offices. 

One daughter married ■ ; 



HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 67 

daughters Margaret and Jane married Cuddeback, as 
lias bee a mentioned. (For tlieir history refer back to 
their names.) 

Daughter Hannah De Witt married James Ennes, 
son of Daniel Ennes, of New Jersey. They became 
owners of a farm near the outlet of Skaneateles lake- 

Daughter Esther De Witt married James Depuy, 
son of Banjamin Depuy, Esq., of the Peenpack neigh- 
borhood. They settled at Onondaga, where they 
owned and occupied a farm. He served in civil and 
military offices. 

Abraham Westfall and wife, Blandina Van Etten, 
became residents in the southwest end of the Peenpack 
neighborhood, in the latter part of the Revolutionary 
War, and he became owner of a gmall, ancient West- 
fall farm, now included in the farm occupied by Capt. 
Henry Swartwoufc. A few rods east of his dwelling 
house stood the old stone house of Westfall. This 
was the house where the fort was in the time of the 
French war, and which the Indians attacked and killed 
part of a company of soldiers who were traveling 
from New Jersey to E^opus, and, jnsfc before the at- 
tack, had stopped in to rest and take refreshments. 
The particulars of this are stated in Eager's History 
of Orange County. 

Abraham Westfall was a son of Westfall, and 

his wife was a daughter of Anthony Van Etten, Esq., 
of the lower neighborhood. In the latter part of the 
Revolutionary War, Westfall was commissioned a Cap- 
tain of the soldiers, who, from time to time, were sta- 
tioned on this frontier. Near the end of the war he 
built a small fort at his house, and, with a feAV soldiers 



68 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

and one or two families, occupied the same. Some- 
time after the war ended, he removed with his family 
to one of the Southern States. ' ./ 

(Children, Joseph, baptized Aug. 18th, 1782 ; An- 
natje, baptized April 20th, 1784. Mahackamack church 
records.) 

FAMILY OF JAMES DAVIS AND WIFE, ELIZABETH KATER. 

They removed from the lower neighborhood into the 
Peenpack neighborhood soon after the Revolutionary 
War ended. She was originally from Rochester or its 
vicinity. They had three sons — Solomon, James and 

Daniel, and daughters — Leali, Elizabeth, Anna, 

and Polly. They all removed into the western 

part of this State, excepting some of the daughters. 

FAMILY OF WILLIAM GEEGGE AND WIFE, LEAH DAVIS. 

He was originally from Ireland and by trade a mill- 
wright. His wife was a daughter of James Davis, 
father of the preceding family. They were married a 
few years after the Revolutionary War ended. He 
built and occupied a grist-mill on a farm he purchased. 
The mill seat and farm is now owned by John Van 
Etten, Esq. They had one son, William, and a 
daughter. 

There were a few other families in the vicinity of 
the Peenback neighborhood. 



ANCIENT FAMILIES 

OF THE LOWER NEIGHBORHOOD. 

The following were ancient families wbo resided in 
the lower neighborhood of this town, who, as near as 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 69 

Ciin be ascertained, must have commenced to settle 
in tlie same more than 20 years after the first settle- 
ment was made at Peeupack : 

FAMILY OF HENRY CORTRIGHT AND WIFE, MARGARET 
DECKER. 



She probably was a sister of Thomas Decker. He 
must have been from Rochester. They resided where 
Aaron Whitlock now lives,. i3LndbeaaDfterpj^;^i^;^ot -his 
present farm. ,,...'«„, ^^ ;:^ ,r, , ,/, r 

One son, Daniel Gortright (bap. May 3, '1743), mar-. 

ried . They first resided ,on the east 

side of Shawangnnk mountain, in the town of Mini- 
sink, and from thence removed into the western part 

of York State. They had sons, ^-— ^ — -, 

and daughters. , 

Another son, Moses Gortright (bap. March 24, 1745), 

married Van Etten, daughter of Anthony Yan 

iEtten, Esq. They continued to reside in the house of 
his father, and he became owner of his homestead 
farm. A few years after the Revolutionary War endfed, 
he with his family removed into the western part of 

this State. They had sons, namel}^ , 

— , and daughters. 



FAMILY or ABRAHAM VAN AUKEN AND WIFE. 

They resided between the present residences of 
David Swartwout and Joseph Cuddeback, where he 
owned a farm. They had three sons — Cornelius, Jo- 



70 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

sias and Abraliam. They, or two of tliem, moved 
into the western part of this State soon after it began 
to be settled. They had daughters, namely — 



FAMILY OF JOHN WESTBROOK AND WIFE, MAGDELENA 
WESTBROOK. 

He owned the farms now of Abraham J. and Isaac 
Cuddeback, and resided where the old house of the 
former now stands, in a stone house. He for some 
years kept a small store for Indian trade and a tavern. 
He was Captain of a company of militia. He had 
(six) sons, namely — (Anthonie, bap. Oct. 31, 1738 ; 
Johannes, bap. Sept. 19, 1740 ; Johannes, bap. Nov. 
16,1746; Samuel, bap. March 12, 1749; Joel, bap. 
April 11, 1756 ; Gideon, bap. Nov. 21, 1769), and (four) 
daughters, namely— (Autje, bap. Dec. 23, 1744 ; Alida, 
bap. Jane 21, 1747 ; Elizabeth, bap. March 24, 1751 ; 
Sara, bap. June 17, 1753.) Nearly all his descendants 
have removed from this place. 



FAMILIES OF VAN AUKEN — HENRY DECKER, 

And another individual were early settlers on the 
farm heretofore occupied by Benjamin Cuddeback, 
Esq., now by his sons, Elting and Dr. Thomas 
Cuddeback. Yan Auken resided at the former resi- 
dence of Jacob Shimer, Decker where Elting now re- 
sides, and the other near the mouth of the brook. The 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 71 

two latter had grist-mills. None of their descendants 
have remained in this town. The wife of Jacob 
Shimer was a daughter or grandaughter of Van Auken. 
They had one son, Richard, who married a daughter 
of Daniel Ennes, and two daughters, one of whom 

married Hezekiah Fredenburi^jh, and the other 

. They, all of this family, removed into the 



western part of this State. 



FAMILY OF JAMES VAN AUKEN AND WIFE, 

Settled at the present residence of Jam^s D. Swart- 
wout, Esq., and owned his farm. He was the first Jus- 
tice of the Peace in the present town of Deerparkt 
which office he probably derived from the governmen, 
of the State of New Jersey. He was a brother of Van 
Auken mentioned. 

His son, Daniel Van Auken, married Leah Kettle, 

daughter of — . He became owner of 

his father's farm, and occupant of his house, at which a 
fort was built in the time of the Revolutionary War ; 
and when the Indians invaded this neighborhood, they 
attacked the fort and two Indians w^ere shot. They 
shot old James Van Auken as he looked through a 

window on the chamber. They had sons — Elijah, 

Nathaniel, Nathan, Absolum, Joshua, Daniel, Jere- 
miah, , and daughters, namely, , 



, , , , , whole num- 
ber fifteen. One of his sons, a school teacher, was 
killed by the Indians when they invaded the lower 



72 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

neigliborhood. These descendants became dispersed 
into different parts of our country. 



SOLOMON KUYKENDALL AND WIFE, SARAH COLE, 

Resided at the present residence of the widow Elt- 
ing and her family, and owned their present farm. He 
was a Justice of the Peace in the time of the Revolu- 
tionary War and after it ended. James Yan Fliet, jr., 
became owner of his real estate. From w^hicli I infer 
that the former had no children living at the time of 
his decease. Yan Fliet had two sons — Solomon, who 
married a daughter of Benjamin Carpenter, and 
the other, Daniel, married a daughter of Jacob West- 
brook. 

Yan Fliet, after some years' occupation of the 
premises, sold and removed with his family west into 
Pennsylvania or York State. 



FAMILY OF SIMON WESTFALL AND WIFE, JANE (JANNETJE) 
WESTBROOK. 

They resided in the old stone house now or lately 
occupied by James Bennet, Esq. He owned a grist- 
mill there and some land. They had (eight) sons — 
Simeon (bap. Feb. 1*^, 1749) ; Wilhelmus (bap. July 8, 
1753) ; John De Witt (bap. May 19, 1751) ; Jury (bap. 
April 23, 1744) ; Jury (b:ip. Jan. 24, 1748) ; Solomon 
(bap. Jan. 27, 1759) ; Daniel (bap. June 5, 1763), and 
Reuben (bap. April 8, 1764.) Also (three) daughters, 
namely — Aeltje (bap. Oct. 6, 1745) ; Aeltje (bap. Feb. 
1756), and Blandina (bap. Nov. 9, 1760.) Wilhelmus 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 73 

settledveast of the Sliawangunk inoiintain, near Deck- 
ertown, in the State of New Jersey. 

His son, Simeon Westfall, married Sarah Cole, 
daughter of David Cole. They became residents m 
the old stone house at Port Jervis, in Pennsylvania, 
where he had a good farm, now possessed by different 
occupants, Samuel Fowler, Simeon Westfall, Dimmick 
and others. Westfall and w4fe had three sons, Simon 
(bap. Feb. 9, 1766), David and George, and two 
daughters, Jane and . 

Son John D. Westfall married Mary Davis, daughter 
of Samuel Davis. They resided in the stone house 
now occupied by (David) Westfall, in the Clove, in the 
north part of New Jersey, where he became owner of 

a good [farm. They had sons, Samuel De Witt 

Westfall (bap. Oct. 29, 1780), , . 

They all removed into the western part of York 
State. 

Son Eeuben Westfall married (Tjaetje) Kuykendall^ 
daughter of Jacob Kuykendall, They remained in the 
old homestead and he remained in possession of the 
farm and mill of his father. They had daughters. 



One daughter (Blandina) Westfall, married John 
Brink They and family have moved into western 
countries, (The Mahackamack church records contain 
the baptism of two children — Femmetje, Oct. 29, 1780 ; 
Reuben Westfall, April 22, 1784.) 



EAMILY or WILLIAM COLE AND WIFE. 

They settled near the present dwelling house of Eli 
Van Inwegen, Esq., and owned a farm there. 



74 HISTORY OF DEEEPAEK. 

His son, Willielmns Cole, married Leali AVestbrook, 
daughter of Cornelius Westbrook, of Jersey State. 
He occupied the liouse of his father until he built a 
new one after the war ended at the same place ; and 
owned his father's farm. They had two sons— Josias 
(bap. Nov. 21, 1764), and Cornelius AVestbrook Cole 
(bap. Feb. 7, 1767), and two daughters — Maria, (bap. 
Oct. 16, 1772), . 

Solomon Decker, from Old Shawangunk, and wife, 

Eleanor Quick, daughter of Quick, an early 

resident of the present township of Westfall, in Penn- 
sylvania, settled with their family in the lower neigh- 
borhood in the time of the Revolutiouary War, near 
the present residence of David Swartwout^. They had 
seven sons — Solomon (bap. Feb. 9, 1746), Jacob (bap. 
Sept. 13, 1761), Thomas (bap. Aug. 19, 1759), James 
(bap. Feb. 2, 1752), Joseph (bap. July 4, 1756), Peter 
(bap. June 21, 1767), and Isaac M. Decker, and three 
daughters — Margaret (bap. April 14, 1754), Lydia (bap. 
Oct. 11, 1747), and Mary (bap. March 4, 1750.) None 
of this family have remained in the present town of 
Deerpark. Youngest son, Isaac M. Decker, is yet liv- 
ing and .now in 1859 is 92 years old. 



FAMILY OF PETEE KUYKENDALL AND WIFE, FAMITJE DECREE. 

They resided in now Port Jervis, where Elias Kuy- 
kendall formerly lived, and he was owner of a farm 
there ; all, or nearly all, of which is now covered by 
the Village of Port Jervis. (The Kingston church 

* Now (1889) the residence of Peter D. Swariwout. 



HISTORY OF DEEIIPARK. 75 

book records the baptism of a son, Martinas, June 18, 
1734, and the Mahackamack records that of Jacob, 
Aug. 23, 1737, and a second Jacob, Oct. 30, 1739.) 

Son Peter Kuykendall married (Catharina) Kettel. 
He continued to live with his father and became owner 
of his farm. They had four sons — Wilhehnus, Mar- 
tin (bap. April 8, 1764), Solomon (bap. Oct. 21, 1753), 
and Elias, and (three) daughters, namely — Elizabeth 
(bap. June 19, 1757), Christyntje, (bap. Aug. 26, 1759), 
and Lea (bap. Dec. 8, 1765.) Their descendants are 
dispersed into different parts of our country. 



FAMILY OF JOHN DECKER AND WIFE. 

He owned an extensive farm or tract of land along 
the Delaware river, the southeast part of which 
bounded on the land of Kuykendall, near wdiich he 
probably first settled t. 



t It is now a few years over a century since the fall of the deepest 
snow ever known in this part of our country ; and before it fell Peter 
Kuykendall and wife went to Esopus and left their children home, where 
John Decker and his wife were to go daily and see to them and render 
such assistance as would be necessary. Two or three days after they 
started this snow fell, and the morning after its falling John Decker 
commenced to shovel and make a footpath through the snow to Kuyken- 
dall's house. He worked all that day and the greatest part of the next 
day before he got to it, and found the door shut so that the children could 
not get out of the house. The door opened to the outside, and the snow 
laid so deep against it that it could not be opened from the inside before 
the snow was removed. It is probable that they first settled as near to 
each other as their situations of ground, water, &c., would admit. No 
victuals had been prepared for the children on the previous day to serve 
them for the next. They contrived to get meal, mix it up with water, 
bake it some or the hearth before the fire, and lived on it till they were 
otherwise provided for. 



76 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

One son, Martin Decker, married 

They lived in the old stone house of Stephen St. John, 
and he became owner of a part of his father's farm. 

They had two sons — John and Eichard, and 

daughter, . 



FAMILY OF SOLOMON DAVIS AND WIFE, LEAH DECKER. 

They resided near the present grist-mill of Thomas 
Yan Etten, Esq., and he owned a grist-mill at that 

place. They had sons — James, Daniel, Joel, 

, and daughters — Beletje, — ■ . 

(The following is the baptismal record of the children 
of Solomon Davis and Leah Decker : Kingston re- 
cords—Lea, March 26, 1735 ; Jacobus, May 18, 1736. 
Mahackamack records — Beletje, May 31, 1738 ; Daniel, 
June 18, 1740 ; Joel, April 23, 1744 ; Jonas, June 16, 
1745 ; Catharina, June 21, 1747 ; Elizabeth, Jan. 20, 
1748 ; Petrus, AprU 15, 1750 ; Salomon, April 5, 1752.) 

Oldest son, James Davis, married Elizabeth Kater. 
Eor their history refer back to their names. 

Second son, Daniel Davis, was the strongest man of 
his time in the present town of Deerpark. 



FAMILIES OF WESTFALL AND DAVID COLE 

were the first settlers on the present farms of Levi and 
Thomas Yan Etten, Esq. 

George Davis and wife, Deborah Schoonnover, had 
one son, Samuel, who became owner of the ancient 
grist-mill at T. Yan Etten's mill seat. 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 77 

Very little is now known respecting these four last 
mentioned ancient families. 

Some of the families in the lower neighborhood, 
who, by marriages had become connected with certain 
families in the Peenpack neighborhood, are included 
in the history of the latter and here omitted. 

It will be seen by this history of the ancient citizens 
of the lower neighborhood that they, as well as the 
others mentioned, were farmers, and they have also ob- 
tained their livings by the cultivation of the earth (a 
laborer's business), and not only provided a compe- 
tency for their respective families, but also a surplus 
for the markets of our country to support those in 
other pursuits of life ; but there now are of the pres- 
ent generations of the descendants of both neighbor- 
hoods some in nearly all the different occupations of 
life in our country. 

From the length of time which intervened between 
the first settlement nearest at Peenpack and that made 
in the lower neighborhood, it appears probable that 
the latter was prevented by the Indian chief who re- 
sided on the land now of Levi or Thomas Van Etten, 
Esq. 



LONGEVITY OF THE FIRST AND SECOND 
GENERATIONS. 

The ages to wliicli the first and second generations 
arrived, cannot all be correctly ascertained for want of 
records of the times of their several births and deaths. 
The only record of which the writer is in possession, is 
that of the families of the first and second Peter Gumaer, 
relative to the births of their respective children. 
These two records are a guide to get into the neighbor- 
hood of the times of the births of the members of the 
other families, and from what I have obtained from in- 
scriptions on tombstones and the information I have 
had relative to the times to which some of them lived, 
I can correctly determine the ages of some of them 
and within a few years of others. 

It was said of Jacob Cuddeback, by his grandson, 
Capt. Cuddeback, that he lived to the age of 100 years 
and retained his faculties good to the end of his life. 
In 1686, when Peter Gumaer was 20 years old, and he 
and Cuddeback had to leave France, the latter cannot 
have been less than 20 or 25 years of age. It appears 
he lived until after the inhabitants of this neighbor- 
hood had to buy some land out of Expense lot number 
two, in the Minisink patent, for a supply of fuel, rail 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 79 

timber, &g., which must have been about the year 1766. 
From all of which it appears that the age of Cudcle- 
back canuot have been less than 100 years, and that 
the answer he made to his son William, heretofore 
mentioned, near the end of his life, shows that his in- 
tellect was yet good at that time. 



AGES OF FIRST GENERATION. 



FAMILY OF JACOB CUDDEBACK. 



Himself - - - 


Years. 
100 




r Beniamin , 


about 80 


His 


William... 


" 74 


sons. 


James 


'' 30 


His wi 


Abraham 

fe, Esther Swartwout 


" 80 

'' 80 


Daugh 


Maria 

Dinah 

ters ~{ Eleanor .... 


" 100 

'' 74 

....'.... " 70 


1 Else 

[ Naomi 


'' 70 

" 80 



AGES OF THE SECOND GENERATION. 

FAMILY OF WILLIAM CUDDEBACK. 

f 1st. James about 80 

Q J 2d. Abraham " 82 

^^^^- 1 3d. Benjamin ... " 45 

[ 4th. Roolif (premature) " 50 

Only daughter Sarah " 70 

These are all the descendants of the ancient Cudde- 



80 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

back family who remained in the present town of Deer- 
park. 

FIRST GENERATION. 

FAMILY OF ANTHONY SWARTWOUT. 

His ( Samuel Swartwont about 70 

sons ( James Swartwout (premature) " 63 

One daughter, wife ol Jolm Van Fliet Unknown. 

SECOND GENERATION. 

FAMILY OF SAMUEL SWARTWOUT. 

Vears. . 

One only daughter, Elizabeth about 60 

Her husband, Benjamin Depuy " 80 

FAMILY OF JAMES SWARTWOUT. 

Anne Gumaer, his first wife about 50 

His second wife, Anna Westbrook " 90 

Son Philip Swartwout (premature) " 51 

His wife, Deborah " 60 

His son, James Swartwout " 90 

And wife, Jane Hornbeck " 90 

These two last individuals were contemporary with 
the second generation, though James was of the next 
descent. 



FIRST GENERATION. 

FAMILY OF PETER GUMAER. 

It is not known to what ages his five daughters ar- 
rived, but none of them became old. They all lived 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 81 

till after married and bad children. Two of tliem bad 
eacb one cbild, one bad two, another three, and the 
other four. All their husbands became widowers, and 
two or more of them bad second wives. It is probable 
that they all died between the ages of 30 and 60 years. 
It was said that in the days of their youth they labored 
very hard, both on the farm and to manufacture their 
cloth and do their housework, and yet had a delicate 
appearance and very fair skin. It was said of one of 
them that she would plough a whole week and become 
very dirty, and on Sunday wash and clean herself and 
put on clean clothes and appear in their reading meet- 
ings with skin as fair and white as that of any lady 
vdio was kept housed out of the sun'«s influence. Peter 
Gumaer, their brother, is the only one of the family I 
have seen. He also was a fair complexioned man. It 
was said that the ancient Cuddebacks Were also fair 
complexioned, and that Major Swartwout and his sons, 
Esqs. Swartwout, were not only fair complexioned, but 
large and very fine, portly men when young in prime 
of life, and that the appearance of the Major on mili- 
tary parades Avas dignified and noble. 

Years. 
Af>e of Peter Gumaer 71 



■-&" 



SECOND GENERATION. 

FAMILY OF THE SECOND PETER GUMAER. 

•Yeai's. 

1st daughter, Esther Gumaer about 70 

Son PeW " 85 

Daughter Margaret " 30 



82 



HISTOEY OF DEERPAEK. 



Son Jacob D 92 

His wife, Huldah Decker . " 75 

Son Ezekiel 80 

His wife, Naomi Louw 84 

Daughter Mary " 80 

Her husband, James Devens '' 70 

Son Elias.... .' " 70 

His wife, Margaret Depuy. *' 70 



FIRST GENERATION. 

FAMILY OF HAEMANUS VAN INWEGEN. 

Years. 

His son, Gerardus about 90 

Daughter Hannah " 80 

Ages of the wife and husband Unknown. 

SECOND GENERATION. 



FAMILY OF GEEAEDUS VAN INWEGEN. 

Years. 

First son, Harmanus about 80 

His wife, Margaret Cole " 85 

Son Jacob " 70 

Son Cornelius " 80 

His wife, Eleanor Westbrook Unknown. 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 83 

l^ears. 

Daughter Hannah about 50 

Daughter Margaret , " 80 

Her husband, John Wallace " 80 

HEADS OF FAMILIES. 

The ages of the following heads of families of this 
neighborhood, contemporary with the second genera- 
tion, were as follows, to wit : . 

Years. 

Jacob R. De Witt about 60 

80 
80 
70 
80 
80 



His wife, Jane Depuy . . . . 

James Davis 

His wife, Elizabeth Kater, 

William Geegge 

His wife, Leah Davis . 



SLAVES. 

The ages of the following slaves who w^ere in this 
neighborhood, contemporary with the second genera- 
tion, were as follows, to wit : 

Years. 
Capt. De Witt's slaves : 

Cuffee. . , about 100 

Frances " 70 

Woman..... " 60 ' 

Esq. Depuy's : 

Man Peter about 80 

Woman Dinah " 75 

Capt. Cuddeback's : 

Woman Susanna " 80 



84 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

Years. 
Ezekiel Gumaer's : 

Man Jack " 80 

Esq. Van Inwegen's : 

Woman Susanna " 70 

James Swartwout's : 

Man Anthony " 70 

Woman Jude '* .70 

The first two generations of the four ancient families 
had the small-pox naturally, without vaccination or 
dieting and without the attendance of a physician, and 
generally had it light. A few individuals, it was 
said, had only light symptoms of the disease and few 
pox ; yet certain individuals of two families had them 
hard. A few of the oldest of Depuy's family were 
considerably pock-marked, and a few of the oldest of 
Van Inwegen's family. The Cuddebacks and Gumaers 
were not pock-marked, and the Swartwouts very 
trifling. 

There Avas in this neighborhood a contagious fever 
between the years 1750 and 1760, which was here 
termed " the long fever." It commenced in one of the 
summers near the end of harvest time, and was more 
mortal to the black people than the whites. Depuy 
lost several slaves, who died of this fever. He said 
the cause had been* attributed to eating too many 
pigeons. 

The second generation of the four ancient families, 
with few exceptions, remained healthy. Kheumatism 
sometimes afflicted the members of the second Gumaer 
family, but stillwere able to perform much labor and 
were stroDg, though not equal in strength to the Swart- 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 85 

wout or Ciiddeback families. . All were men of six 
feet stature, excepting two of the Gumaer and one of 
the Van Inwegen fjimily, and averaging near 200 lbs. 
weight. 



LOWER NEIGHBOKHOOD. 

The following are the ages of the first generation of 
descendants of this neighborhood who were contem- 
porary with the second of the other, viz. : 

Years. 

Wilhelmns Cole died 1829, aged 88 

His wife, Leah, died 1820, aged 77 

Peter Kuykendal. about 80 

Martinus (Martin) Decker died in 1802, aged.. . . . 09 

Simon Westfall died in 1805, aged 87 

His wife 85 

(Sally), wife of his son Simon, died 1837, aged. . . 95 

Solomon Kuykendall, Esq > Tj^i^^^own 

His wiie, barali Cole ) 

Daniel Yan Auken aged about 80 

His wife, Leah " " 80 

James Yan Fliet " " 80 

His wife, Margaret Schoonover " " 80 

Anthony Yan Etteu, Esq " " — 

His wdfe, Hannah Decker ; . " " 85 

Major John Decker " " 70 

His wife, Sarah Hornbeck " " 80 

Johannis (John) Decker ....'• " " 65 

His wife, Deborah Yan Fliet " " 50 



86 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

Years. 

Capt. Johannis (John) Westbrook " " 80 

His wife, Magdalena " " 75 



POPULATION OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF 
PEENPACK. 

MANNER OF LIVING, ETC., DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY 
• WAR, AND FOR SOME YEARS THEREAFTER. 

The second generation came on the stage of action 
and were married and had their farms granted to them 
in the intervening time between the French and Revo- 
lutionary wars, and commenced their business transac- 
tions when this part of our country was in a more 
thriving condition than it ever had been, in consequence 
of the circulation of a paper currency, which had be- 
come plentiful, and farmers made money faster than at 
any previous time ; but when the scale turned by its 
depreciation, its previous value was lost, which, to- 
gether with the destruction the enemy made in the war, 
greatly reduced the property of the inhabitants. 

In 1777, three forts were built in this neighborhood : 
one at the house of Esq. Depuy was vacated the 13th 
October, 1778, on which day the enemy invaded this 
neighborhood 9.nd burned this house, fort and other 
buildings of Depuy, in consequence of which all the 
inhabitants of this neighborhood were collected in the 
fort at Gumaer's and in Fort De Witt, to wit : 

At Gumaer's the following families : 

Whole No. 
Philip Swartwout's, Esquire, which, after the 

death of himself and two oldest sons by the 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 87 

Whole JVo. 
enemy, consisting of his step-mother, his 
widow, three sons, a son's wife and 
daughter, two slaves and an insane man. . . 10 

Capt. Abraham Cuddeback's, which consisted 
of himself and wife, four son^, two daught- 
ers, a nephew aiid brother, and three slaves 13 

Harmanus Van Inwegen's, Esq., consisted of 
himself and wife, seven sons, two daughters, 
a brother and five slaves 17 

Benjamin Cuddeback's were himself and wife, 
four sons, two daughters, a brother and two 
slaves 11 

Jacob D. Gumaer's was himself and wife, two 

sons, five daughters and two slaves 11 

Peter Gumaer's, himself and wife, two sons 

and one slave 5 

Ezekiel Gumaer's, his father, himself and wife, 

a son and one other boy and one slave .... 6 

Thomas White and wife 2 

Mathew Terwilliger's, himself, wife, six sons 

and three daughters . ; 11 

John Wallace's, himself, wife, one son and 

one daughter 4 

Average number of soldiers during nine 

months in each year, about 8 



12 
23 
63 



Amount 98 



88 HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 

^Yhole No. 
Benjamin Depiiy, Esq.'s, family were in this 
fort about one year. It consisted of him- 
self, wife, three sons, three daughters and 
seven slaves 15 

Whole number that year 113 

At Fort De AVitt were the following families : 
Capt. Jacob E. De Witt's, which were him- 
self, wife, three sons, six daughters and four 

slaves. 15 

Moses Depuy's, himself, wife, two sons and 

two slaves 6 

Whole number ..... 21 

Samuel Depuy's, himself, wife, two sons and 

one slave 5 

Elias Gumaer's, himself, wife, four sons, two 

daughters and two slaves 10 

Abraham Cuddeback's, himself, wife, four 

sons and one slave 7 

Average number of nine month's soldiers 

about 12 

Jonathan Pierce's family and a few other in- 
dividuals may have been in this fort 10 in 
number 10 



44 
21 



Amount 65 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 89 

^Yhole No. 
Esq. Depuy's family were in this fort during 

a part of the year, 15 in number 15 

Whole nuinber , 80 

There were some children born in both forts, which 
are not included. 

LOWER NEIGHBORHOOD. 

ITS FORTS AND SOME OF ITS WAR OCCURRE WES, ETC. 

Previous to the invasion of this neighborhood by 
the Indians, three forts had been built in it in 1777 or 
'78 ; one at the house of Major Decker, where George 
Cuddeback now lives*, one at the house of D iniel Van 
Auken, near the present brick house of James D. 
Swartwout, Esq. t, and the other at tlie house of Peter 
Decker, in the present village of Port Jervis. The fort 
at Major Decker's was convenient for the families of 
Esq. Anthony Van Etten, Sylvester Cortright, Capt. 
Westbrook, Moses Cortright, Abraham Van Auken, 
and Schoonhover ; and the fort at Van Auken's was 
convenient for the families of James Van Fliet, Solo- 
mon Kuykendall, Esq., Simon Westfall, John Decker, 
and one or two other families ; and the fort at Decker's % 
was convenient for the families of Wilhelmus Cole, 
Martin us (Martin) Decker, Samuel Caskey, James 
Davis and Utley Westbrook. 

* Now (i88g) occupied by Henry G. Cuddeback. 
t Now (1889) owned by Ludwig Laux. 

I Located upon the present site of the old stone house in Germantown, 
formerly occupied by Stephen St. John, deceased, and his family. 



90 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

On the 20fcb of July, 1779, Brant, with a corps of 
Indians and tories, invaded this neighborhood. The 
occurrences of which and of the battle of Minisink, 
one or two days afterwards, are contained in Eager's 
History of Orange County, page 388, &c., relative to 
the invasion nnd in relation to the battle see page 490, 
(fee. • Tliere were about 18 families in this neighbor- 
hood who siififered in a greater or less degree the effects 
of the war, and a great proportion of them lost much 
property by the plunder and destruction which the 
enemy made by taking some of the best horses, plun- 
dering houses of goods and wearing apparel, burning 
of houses, barns and other buildings. In addition to 
which a few prisoners were taken, two of whom were 
slaves and two or more were killed. This invasion 
caused many of the best citizens of Goshen and vici- 
nity to volunteer and pursue the enemy. The result of 
this w^as a more grievous calamity than the former, the 
results of which can be obtained as mentioned. 

The number of children and domestics of each 
family in the lower neighborhood I cannot correctly 
determine, but contemplate the number of children to 
have been nearly as follows, to wit : 

Anthony Yan Etten 15 

Daniel Yan Auken 15 

Major John Decker 6 

Moses Cortright about 7 

Jacob Schoonhover about 3 

Abraham Yan Auken " 4 

Capt. John .Westbrook " 7 

John Decker, Sr " 6 

Sylvester Cortright " 4 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 



91 



Decker " 4 

James Van Fliet" " 8 

Solomon Kuykendall Mone. 

Simon AVestfall " 6 

AVillielmus Cole " 4 

Peter Kiiykendall " 5 

Samuel Caskev " 6 

Martiniis (Martin ) Decker 3 

Utley Westbrook 2 

Whole number 105 

The number of children of those 18 families, ac- 
coriling to my recollections, cannot have been less 
than 100, and may^ have been as many as 110. How 
many of them grew up to years of maturity, or how 
many died previous thereto I do not know. Major 
Decker had two or three children by his first wife, who 
died young; and John Decker, Sr., had one or more by 
his first wife, who also died young before the war com- 
menced, bat all of them after the decaase of their re- 
spective mothers. The loss of a mother will affect the 
feelings of some children much, and no doubt many a 
child dies in consequence oi' the melancholy state of 
mind produced by such a bereavement. There were 
two or more premature deaths of boys or young men, 
and there may have bjen a few natural deaths in this 
nei"liborhood of which I have no recollection. 



PEENPACK NEIGHBORHOOD. 

The following were the number of children of each 
family in it during the war, and of two contemporary 



92 HISTORY OF DEEEPARK. 

families who came into it after the war ended, to wit : 

Children of Esq. Swartwout 4 

Capt. Cuddeback 6 

" Esq. Van Inwegen 10 

B. Cuddeback 6 

J. D. Gumaer ... 7 

" P. Gumaer 4 

Ez. Gumaer 2 

J. Wallace 2 

" . M. Terwilliger 9 

Esq. Depuy 6 

Capt. De Witt 9 

M. Depuy 3 

S. Depuy 3 

Eb. Gumaer 6 

Ab. Cuddeback 4 

Widow Cuddeback 3 

84 

Residents after ( J. Davis 7 

the war ended. ( W. Geegge 2 

93 

Of these 93 children a son of Ezekiel Gumaer died 
at the age of nearly live years, a daughter of Benja- 
min Cnddeback at the age of about six years, and a 
son of Esq. Van Etten, aged about 12 years. A son of 
Benjamin Cuddeback (Levi), died prematurely after he 
became a man, of a colic, caused by eating too many 
wintergreen berries, and a son of Abraham Caddeback, 
Sr. (Philip), also died prematurely after he had arrived 
at manhood, of consumption, caused by overheating 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 93 

himself to put out a fire in the woods. Both these oc- 
curred a few years after the war ended. All the others 
lived until after they were married and had families 
of their own ; but the greatest part of them did not 
become as old as their respective parents. The first 
wife of James Swartwout died in the fort at Gumaer's, 
of consumption, within about one year after she came 
into it, aged about 25 years ; and Peter Gumaer died 
of palsy in this fort, near the end of the war, aged 
71 years. There also were five premature deaths 
caused by the enemy — that of the three Swartwouts in 
this neighborhood, as has been mentioned — Gerardus 
Van Inwegen at Fort Montgomery, and Mathew Ter- 
williger, in the Minisink battle. 

The following exhibits a certain number of the 
children mentioned who became as old, and older, than 
their respective fathers and of those who did not at- 
tain to such an age. In this I have excluded those 
families I could not ascertain, in consequence of hav- 
ing removed into other parts of our country, and of 
those untimely deaths not ended by nature's process, 
which leaves for calculation t'i3 following families. 
The left hand column of figures shows the number of 
those who became as old, and older, than their respec- 
tive fathers, and the right hand column the number of 
those who did not arrive to that age, to wit : 

Oldest Youngest 
Parents. Children. Children. 

Capt. Cuddeback 2 4 

Esq. Van Inwegen 2 8 

Benj. Cuddeback 4 2 

J. D. Gumaer 7 



94 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

Oldest ' Youngest 

Parents. Children. Chtldi^en: 

Peter Gumaer 4- 

Ez. Grumaer. 1 2 

Esq. Depuy 4 4 

S. Depuj 3 

Eb. Gumaer 6 

J. Davis 1 6 

Wm. Geeggc. 2 

J. R. De Witt 4 5 

18 52 

This, calculation, being as near as I can ascertain tlie 
same, in respect of correctness, shows that only about 
one-quarter gf the children of those families became 
as old as their respective fathers. - , 

- This great degeneracy will naturally lead to an in- 
quiiy respecting the cause of the same. To answer 
which, or to throw some light on the subject in rela- 
tion thereto, I consider it necessary to state the man- 
ner and circumstances of life of each generation, as 
near as I am able to do it, to wit : 



THE FIRST GENERATION 

Being the children of the first pioneers, who set- 
tled in Peenpack at a time when there was was no 
other production in this part of the country for them 
to live on than the meat they could obtain of the wild 
animals, fowls and fishes before they raised grain oi^ 
other productions for their diet, and we have reason to 
infer that after raising grain they only pounded it fine 



HISTOHY OF DEERPARK; 95 

to answer for meart soups and such bread or cakes as 
fehey could make of it, to eat witli those meats, and 
thfirt these were their chief or only eatables for som^ 
years before they becaiiie enabled to have any other 
diet. They may, in the first instance, have obtained 
some meal from Rochester or vicinity, hut after raising 
enough for their use it is probable they would rather 
use it pounded than to take it to" the iiearest mill, at 
that time, to get it ground, in wliich fetter X3ase the 
bran remained in the meal and asr they could obtain 
good pounding stones and blocks from the Indians to 
pound their grain, and as the bran in grinding as well 
as pounding would remain in the meal, and as thd 
nearest mill must have been about 25 or 30 miles 
from their neighborhood, we have reason to believe 
that they pouncled their grain for soups and b re ail be- 
fore mills were erected in this to \Yn ; and that, the 
greatest difference between the diet of those families 
and that of the Indians, was that the former ate a 
greater proportion of vegetable productions than the 
latter. The men of this generation of desc^endants 
were generally stronger than those who succeeded 
them,from which it appears their eatables were health- 
ful and that their drink, which was the best of spring 
water, also promoted healtli, and that all other circum- 
stances which attended them were also of a . healthful 
character, to wit : a. pure air of the atmosphere, not 
impregnated with the exhalations from bad, stagnant 
waters ; brooks and small streams of clear water run^ 
ning down the mountains; into the Neversink, creating 
a river of clear water passing through this valley . 
such I02: houses as would let the fresh air of the at- 



96 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

mosphere pass freely into them towards the large tire 
they kept up in cold weather, and their continual ex- 
ercises in their boyhood with the Indian children in 
hunting, fishing, &c., and in all their sportive exer- 
cises of running, wrestling, &c., all had a tendency to 
promote health and strength and fit them for the labor 
they had to perform as they advanced in growth and 
after arriving to manhood, in respect to which how- 
ever some parents were more indulgent than others, 
and those of the most persevering business character 
compelled their children to labor harder than those 
parents who were less persevering. 



SECOND GENERATION. 

My own recollection reaches no further back than 
the time in which all of them had families and when 
most of their children were small, but I have under- 
stood that their bread was made of unbolted wheat 
meal sifted through hand sieves to take out the coarse 
bran, until after they had grown up to years of matur- 
ity, and that after bolting meal was first introduced 
some persons said it was too extravagent to use only 
the fine flour to eat and to use all the rest for feed. 
During this time, and until all had families, many 
deers, bears, raccoons, wild fowls and fishes continued 
to exist, and the inhabitants were furnished with many 
meats, in consequence of which they did not make use 
of as much pork and beef as they did after those wild 
creatures and fishes became scarce. 

As far back as I remember, being from about the 
year 1774, in my father's family mush made of Indian 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 97 

meal and milk (generally buttermilk), bread and milk* 
buttermilk pop of two kiuds and bread and butter was 
a very general diet, not only of his family but of all 
those in the forts during the war and for some years 
thereafter throughout this neighborhood. It was also 
very common to have a dinner pot of pork and beef, 
or either of these boiled togetiier with peeled potatoes, " 
turnips or other sauce. The bread used during this 
time was rye bread, not as white as we generally now 
have it. It was very common to have a pot of sweet 
milk thickened with wheat flour lumps boiled every 
Sunday morning for breakfast and for a part ot: the 
dinner. These were the most general diet -during the 
warm season of the year. In winter, a greater pro- 
portion of meat, potatoes, turnips and other vegeta- 
bles, dried apples, pumpkins, beans, &c. were eaten, and 
less milk diet ; yet the supper generally consisted both 
summer and winter of mush and milk or buttermilk pop, 
except in families during a time where cows happened 
to be all dry. The supper was had without any addi- 
tion except in the long summer days when bread and 
b-utter was added. Some buckwhent pancake was 
generally eaten in winter. Now, in addition to those 
common diets, they sometimes had as a rarity, wheat 
flour shortcakes, doughnuts boiled in hog's lard, pan- 
cakes baked thin in a frying pan, puddings and dump- 
lings boiled in water and eaten with a palatable gravy, 
chicken pot-pie, chicken soup, eggs boiled or fried and 
sometimes used in other diflerent ways ; many apple 
pies and huckleberry pies were made when tliese 
fruits and berries were plenty. They also had for 
winter rarity sausages of hog's meat, <fec. 

In respect to the other attendants of air, water and 



98 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

exercise which have heretofore been mentioned, this 
generation enjoyed all these in the same manner as 
the first, but these had superior dwellings which were 
comfortable stone houses which every farmer, with 
very few exceptions, in this town possessed before the 
Revolutionary War, commenced. These were closer 
than the first dwelhngs erected here, but still not very 
tight houses. Each room generally had an outside 
door, and all the rooms generally were on the loAver 
floor; the chamber above these was used for granaries, 
flour barrels, and to store many difterent articles. The 
cellars were used for their milk and dairy articles, meat 
casks, cider barrels, winter apples, potatoes, turnips, 
and other vegetables. These cellar articles were not 
saleable in former times, but were generally used by 
the families who produced them. 

The table furniture generally consisted of ordinary 
table knives and forks, pewter plates, pewter basins 
and platters of different sizes, pewter spoons, and a 
pewter mug which would contain about two quarts of 
cider, on Avhich was a cover to open and close b}' means 
of a hinge, which last article was generally brought on 
the table for drink when the meal eonsisted of meat 
and hearty victuals, but was not used with their milk 
diets. 

In the time of the war many of those articles were 
destroyed, and wooden plates, wooden bowls and 
dishes of different sizes were manufactured with a 
turning lathe and used for table furniture. 

Now, although our parents lived in this plain and 
simple style, yet our mothers were as neat and clean 
housekeepers as their circumstances and business con- 
cerns would admit. They generally cleaned house 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 99 

every spring and fall, in which they scrubbed and 
washed with soap-suds the under part of the upper 
floor and beams, and whitewashed the walls, and every 
Saturday scrubbed and wiped the floors of their sitting 
rooms and kitchens. Floor carpets were not used in 
their time. The linen shirts, trowsers and frocks of 
the men and boys, and the linen clothes of the women 
worn during one week, were in the next boiled in a 
pot or kettle of lye, and, after a proper time, the pot 
was carried out to a pounding block, where, while hot, 
the clothes Avere taken out by pieces and battled on 
the block with a battle, and then put in a tub of soap- 
suds, made of soft home-made soap, in which the same 
was washed and thereafter rinsed in clean water and 
dried. Our fathers, their sons and slaves, labored hard 
in the hot season of the year and often wet their shirts 
and trowsers with the sweat of their bodies, and this 
manner of' boiling, battling and washing those linen 
clothes was very effectual to clean the same. 

All the travel before the war, in time of the war and 
for some years thereafter, was performed on foot, on 
horseback, and in lumber wagons and lumber sleds. In 
this manner people visited each other, and attended to 
all their religious and other meetings, and to all their 
traveling business concerns. Many of the Avomen had 
become habituated to ride on horseback, and had their 
side-saddles for the same. When a dance was had, 
the young men fetched the girls on horseback, and the 
young man's liorse became the carrier of hiai and his 
lady, who mounted on it behind him. In those times 
no paints adorned the houses of our fathers, nor arti- 
cles of fancy their rooms. No fanciful tables or table 
furniture ; no great variety of eatables and drinks were 



100 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

furnished for one meal ; no clotliing of superfine clotli 
or silk was worn in those times, nor even a pair of 
boots and rarely a fur hat. Pleasure wagons and 
pleasure sleighs did not ease and make comfortable the 
travels of our parents ; no umbrellas covered their 
heads from the rays of the sun and the storms through 
which they had to pass. All of which articles are now 
furnished in great abundance, and generally all can 
enjoy more or less of them. 

The buildings of those times, especially. before the 
war, for storing grain, hay, horses and cattle, consisted 
of a barn and one or two barracks for each farmer, all 
covered with straw roofs. The barns were built nearly 
square on the ground, with a floor through its middle 
and a stable along one side for horses and one along 
the other side for cattle. When the barn would not 
contain all the grain raised on the farm, one or two 
barracks were erected by setting four or five long posts 
in the ground, hewed eight square, tapered towards 
the top end. Holes to contain iron bolts about an 
inch and a half thick were bored through each post 
at about one foot and a half apart, from the bottom to 
the top. These holes contained the bolts on which 
the frame of the roof laid, which was raised to the top 
of the poles by means of a windlass, and, after being 
filled with grain, whenever any of it was taken out, the 
roof was let down therewith to prevent rain and snow 
from blowing on it. 

This generation generally ended their days after the 
commencement of a great change in our country ; and 
by contrasting their manner of life with that of the 
present time (now 1858), we behold the great change 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 101 

made in a term of about half a century in the habits 
of life in this town. 



THIRT) GENERATION. 

Between the years 1780 and 1800 this generation of 
the Peenpack neighborhood, of Avhich I am a member, 
and the second generation of the lower neighborhood, 
came on the stage of action and commenced their own 
business transactions, in which we generally followed 
in the habits of our parents in respect to labor and 
diet, which continued for some time after the war 
ended. A change from the moral behavior of our parents 
was generated among the young people in the time of 
the war, and rude, vulgar and uncivilized habits had 
been acquired. After the war ended West India 
and York rum was introduced into this part of our 
country after stores became established in it, and 
farmers generally began to use these liquors in time of 
harvest and haying, during Avhich time, in the first in- 
stance, a dram w^as taken early in the morning and 
work commenced and continued until about 8 o'clock, 
when breakfast was taken and then a bottle which 
held near a quart was filled with liquor and taken to 
the field for about six laborers, to last that dnj. This 
had been a practice before the war commenced and 
was considered to be an antidote against people in- 
juring themselves by drinking cold water when the 
body was much heated by labor ; and as those liquors 
enlivened people and made them more vigorous to 
perform work during their operation, it was thought 
to be profitable in that respect. These, and the use of 



102 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

cider, were the first changes in this town, from the 
habits of the people in the time of the war. 



USE OF SPIRITS AT FUNERALS AND WED- 
DINGS. 

Liquor was used at funerals. The practice was 
to give each person a dram before entering the house 
in which the corpse was. This was done by two men 
who were placed with liquor at each door of the liouse 
or each side of one door, and was thought in those 
times to be an antidote against contagion, and for that 
purpose a dram was given to each bearer before he 
performed his official duty.- /Hum and cider were also 
used to treat people for their services in assisting in 
raising buildings after the war had ended. Rum was 
also used at weddings to- treat tlie friends who at- 
tended it. In those anterior times and even within 
my own recollection, it Was customary to invite to a 
wedding all the young people in this present town and 
some down the Delaware in New Jersey and Pennsyl- 
vania ; and people, after the war ended, had not 
the means to furnish a variety of good victuals for 
their friends and neighbors who, yet treated them with 
those liquors, which had a superior estimation in those 
times to that of the present. They clieered and made 
lively and sociable the friends and neighbors who col- 
lected together, with trifling, if any, evil consequences, 
for people in those days guarded themselves against 
drinking so much as to become intoxicated and I have 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 103 

never known of any farmer of tlie second generation 
becoming drunk, yet there may have been such instan- 
ces, and in progress of years it became a custom to 
make many afternoon frolics with liquor to get differ- 
ent jobs of work done. This led to intemperance and 
their multiplicity was unprofitable in a neighborhood. 
The 3^oung people sometimes had rude dancing frolics, 
where their only beverage was rum which was used in 
different ways, clear, sweetened with sugar, or made 
into sling, milk punch, eggnog, <fec. The quantity of 
liquor drinked at these frolics, and the rudeness of the 
times caused many a fist fight, and this fighting be- 
came common at other gatherings of people where 
liquor was drank. 

The use of those liquors increased and others were 
introduced, such as gin, brandy , and different sorts of 
wines, &c. All these, generally *of foreign manufacture, 
in progress of time, were kept, for sale in stores by the 
large measure, and in taverns by small measure, where 
travelers and others who entered the taverns could not 
only have a choice of- the variety of liquors, but also 
have their palatable taste improved by the infusion of 
sugar and other articles, whereby slings, milk punch, 
eggnog, hot toddy and other palatable compositions 
were made and much drinked in taverns. And in pro- 
cess of time distillei-ies were numerously erected in 
this part of our country^ and cider and rye whisky, 
peach brandy, (fee. were distilled in great quantities 
and other liquors were sometimes formed out of these. 
All of this flooded our country with a great amount of 
liquors of different kinds, the use of which became so 
fashionable that the greater part of families generally 
kept some in their houses to treat therewith the friends 



104 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

and neighbors who shoukl visit them, and occasionally 
to use it in the family. 

. After some years' continuance of this extravagant 
use of spirituous liquors, its pernicious effects became 
apparent, and tlie writings of those who exclaimed 
against it, the warnings from the pulpit, and at last the 
formation of temperance societies had the effect of 
making the practice of keeping and using liquor in 
families unfashionable, and it became generally aban- 
doned and many refrained from its use. This was a 
fortunate change, for all classes of people had become 
sufferers from the bad effects of those habits which 
had principally originated from the introduction of the 
fashion of treating each other with those liquors pre- 
pared in the most palatable man"ner, both at home and 
in taverns ; and I have no doubt that more than one- 
half of the liquor drank in those days was merely to 
follow the fashion of the times. Men generally dis- 
like to be different from others. Tliis is a powerful 
inducement to sway men to conform in a greater or 
less degree to the customs and fashions of their time, 
and, when these happen to be pernicious, thousands 
sometimes become the sufferers from their .evil conse- 
quences. 



TEEATING VISITORS. 

About the year 1800, the practice of keeping spirit- 
uous liquors and other appendages in families to treat 
visitors commenced. In 1813, w^hen I commenced 
housekeeping, I thought it necessary to keep liquor, 
sugar, &c., in the house to treat visitors, and from that 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 105 

time until temperance societies were formed, I thought 
I could not ajsjreeably entertain a visitor without hav- 
ing those articles, and if I happened to have none in 
the house at such time I generally sent out for them. 

Cider had been a very plentiful and common drink 
in this neighborhood for many years. Caddeback and 
Gumaer had been in the habit of drinking wine in 
their country, and after settling here, it appears, made 
early provision to have cider for their drink ; for there 
were apple trees in their orchards and in Van Inwe- 
gen's orchard between two and three feet in diameter 
in the time of the Revolution ; and when Gumaer (my 
grandfather) built his house, before the French war 
commenced, he had an opening left in th3 back wall of 
liis cider cellar for a gutter to pass through it from his 
cider press back of the house into the cellar, and this 
gutter and others led the cider into the different cider 
barrels in it. From which it appears that the making 
of cider had become quite a business at that time, and, 
as it was no salable article, it was generally 
all drank by the family and visitors and by 
the Indians. It was a common drink from the 
time it was made in the fall until spring, when 
Gumaer made beer to drink in warm weather, for which 
he had a large brass kettle set on mason work, a long 
building and other fixtures to make and dry his malt. 
The use of cider by the white people never made them 
drunk, but some Indians, if they could get enough to 
drink, would sonietimes get both drunk and abusive, 
in consequence of which it was generally withheld 
from them after they had drank enough. In respect to 
which I will, here relate an occurrence. A large, stout 



106 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

Indian at a certain time, came to Gumaer's and asked 
for a drink of cider. The pewter mug, which held two 
quarts, was filled and given to him. He drank and set 
it down by him, which, after drinking a few times, he 
emptied and asked for more. Gumaer told him he had 
drank enough, and that he would not let him have 
more. The Indian, after asking a few times and see- 
ing he would not get more, took the mug and went off 
with it. Gumaer went to the barn, where his black 
man, Jack (who feared no Indian), was threshing with 
other hands, and told him that the Indian had gone off 
with the mug and that he must go and get it from hiai. 
Jack went, overtook the Indian, got hold of the mug, 
and, after a hard scuffle, got it from him and returned 
to his work. The Indian also returned and followed 
Jack to the barn and challenged him to fight. Jack, 
having felt his strength, did not like to undertake it ; 
but, after some provocation of the Indian, a severe, 
long and hard fight was had, in which Jack became 
the conqueror. He had had many a fist fight with the 
Indians, but said this was the hardest he ever had. 
The Indians, when they became somewhat intoxicated, 
would often fight each other, in which they would 
make great exertions to get hold of each other's heads 
and try to twist each other's necks. From all of which, 
it appears, they could drink more cider than the white 
people and enough to make them drunk, against which 
the latter had to guard to evade the trouble of their 
intoxication. They would never revenge injuries which 
emanated therefrom, but imputed the same to the 
liquor as the sole cause. 

After rum was kept in taverns in our neighborhoods 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 107 

a company of Indians from other places sometimes 
came here to have a drinking frolic, for which they 
procured rum and selected a place for that purpose at 
a distance from the dwellings of the white inhabitants, 
sO as not to disturb them, where they appointed two 
of their number to keep sober to watch and prevent 
them from hurting each other. To these two men they 
gave up all their guns, hatchets and knives, who hid 
them out of the way so that they should not have 
weapons wherewith to hurt each other ; and when all 
their arrangements were made they began to drink and 
soon got into a very noisy, turbulent and rude frolic, 
in which they would whoop, halloo, take Lokl of each 
other, scuffle, wrestle and sometimes fight. This they 
continued till their thirst for rum became satisfied, and 
after becoming sober, they were dull, stupid and de- 
prived of the liveliness and activity they, possessed 
before they commenced drinking, which had to be re- 
stored by abstinence. 



NO DRUNKAEDS AMONG THEM. 

The first and second generations of the first four fam- 
ilies who remained in this neighborhood had the free 
use of cider for a term of about one hundred years, 
including the time of the war, in which they could not 
have it, and during the greatest part of all that time 
had the means to procure as much other liquor as they 
craved, and yet not a single individual of them be- 
came a drunkard. When they came into compan}^ 
where rum or other spirituous liquors were drank, 
they would become lively, cheerful and humorous, 



108 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

by partaking of the same, but not as the saying is 
" under foot." Such instances of sobriety, under such 
attending circumstances, for such a length of time, 
seldom occur. 

We of the third generation, as well as our fore- 
fathers, have also been in a like habit of drinking 
cider during the greater part of our lives, and for 
many years in the habit of drinking all sorts of spirit- 
uous liquors without a single individual of us becom- 
ing what is termed a drunkard, but two or three of our 
class did sometimes become intoxicated and made a 
considerable approach towards being entirely over- 
come by the effect of liquor. Sucii also was the ad- 
vancement of Gvimaer "toward those allurements as 
has been mentioned and there ha\^ been rare instan- 
ces of some of us of sober lives becoming intoxicated. 
It is now (in 1858) 168 years since this neighborhood 
was first settled. Take 28 years from this time for 
.the growth of an orchard to make cider, and 140 years 
remain for tlie use of its production which must have 
become plentiful within a less time than 28 years, for 
the first orchards of Cuddeback and Gumaer and one 
of Swartwout, which became Van Inwegen's, were on 
the very best of their river flats and must have had a 
very quick growth ; the trees became large and were 
between two and three feet in diameter about the year 
1780 when they appeared to have their full growth 
and some limbs began to die. From all of which we 
have reason to in-fer that the manufacturing of cider 
commenced here before the year 1720 and that much 
of it had been drank here from that time until the 3- ear 
1840, previous to which its use began to abate and 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 109 

within that time many other spirituous liquors have 
been used with a mere trifle of intoxication for so long 
a time. 

Now, although we and our forefathers received a 
mere trifle of the bad effects of liquors in this respect, 
yet the constitution of some of us must have been in- 
jured by their use. I, myself, have experienced the 
bad effects therefrom in respect to my own constitu- 
tion, which at one time became so weak against its 
effects that if I drank so as to feel the least alteration 
from its influence it hurt me. This, however, was not 
the case with many others ; some hard drinking men 
who came here among us remained healthy and lived 
to be old. Whether such would or would not have 
arrived to an older age without the use of liquor is un- 
certain. 

Our diets continued to be the same as has been men- 
tioned for some years after the Revolutionary War 
ended ; but the diets of mush, &c., which were eaten 
with milk, began to be abandoned after diflerent kinds 
of teas and coft'ee began to be use l,and,after becoming 
generally Used, the milk diets were in a manner wholly 
abandoned. In these drhiks a little milk and sugar 
was put ; molasses also was very plentifully used, and 
with this, sugar and other articles, many palatable, 
different kinds of sweet cakes, pies, <fec., were made ; 
also, different kinds of spices became fashionable for 
adding agreeable flavors to some diets. Now, all these 
are eatables and drinks which Ave did not have in our 
early days. In addition to all these we now have dif- 
ferent kinds of preserves made w4th sugar, molasses, 



110 HISTOEY OF DE:ERPARK. 

and different sorts of fruit, berries, &c., and some other 
diets we did not have. 

After tea and coffee had been used for some time, 
they were preferred by the young people to the milk 
diet ; but some of the older class, who had been habit- 
uated to eatiijg buttermillk pop, mush and milk, and 
other diets, often chose to have these in preference to 
tea or coffee. Such are the effects of habit. 

As to our industry and labors for the support of our 
families and to make advancement, they continued 
during our lives to be about the same on an average as 
those of our parents, in which some were more perse- 
vering and others less than their respective parents. 

The inhabitants of the lower neighborhood who 
were contemporary with our parents, and those who 
were the same with ourselves, have also continued and 
progressed in about the same manner as we and our 
parents have done in the habits of life mentioned. 

After our manner of living changed, we were from 
time to time afflicted with ailments and diseases which 
all have continued to suffer at times, more or less, 
until the present time ; but of late years have not had 
such mortal distempers in this vicinity as some we had 
at certain previous periods. 



PHYSICAL STRENGTH OF FIRST GENERA- 
TION. 

The first generation of the sons of the four families 
were reputed to have been strong men. It was said 
that the three eldest sous of Jacob Cuddeback, Benja- 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. Ill 

mill, William and James, could carry 12 skipple. wheat 
(9 bushels), by putting it into four three-skipple sacks, 
and, placing one under each arm and taking hold with 
each hand of the top of the others, could, on a barn 
floor, in this manner carry it from one end of the barn 
to the other ; and that Anthony Swartwout's two sons, 
Samuel and James, could do the same, and that Har- 
manus Van Inwegen's son Gerardus, who was a smaller 
man, could carry it a few steps. Abraham Cuddeback, 
youngest son of his father, could not do it, nor Peter 
Gumaer's son Peter, so that only two out of eight were 
unable to carry it. From which the difference of their 
bodily strength, and that of those now on the stage of 
action becomes apparent. 

The degeneracy of the inhabitants of this neighbor- 
hood has not been confined to them alone, but has ex- 
tended from here down the Neversink and Delaware 
rivers throughout the Holland Dutch settlements ; also 
from this neighborhood to Kingston. In the lower 
neighborhood in this town formerly were men as stout 
as those mentioned. It was said that one man in it 
could add one more bag of wheat an 1 hold it with his 
teeth, and carry 15 skipple wheat (llj bushels). 

Among the first generation along the Delaware river 
in the States of New Jerse)^ and Pennsylvania, were 
men of equal strength with those mentioned, but not 
generally as strong. Such was also the case in respect 
to the inhabitants from liere to Kingston. 

The second generation of the four families did not 
arrive to as great bodily strength as the first, but still 
were strong men. All of them, excepting three, were 
men wliose stature averaged about six feet, and their 
average weiglit was near 200 lbs. when in prime of 



112 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

life. • Two of the three, who were of shorter stature, 
averaged about the same weight. I have seen the 
smallest, lightest and weakest man of their w^hole num- 
ber with only the use of one hand, take a short three 
skipple sack, tilled with rye, from the ground and put 
it on his shoukler. There were twelve of these men, 
and nine of them had families. These had 36 sons, 
wdio were all inferior in bodily strength to their respec- 
tive fathers, and were all smaller and lighter men, ex- 
cepting a few of the sons of Cornelius Yan Inwegen, 
who were taller and lAay have been heavier than their 
fathers, and nearly or quite as strong. All the others 
Avere inferior to their fathers, and some much weaker 
in strength. Such a change in the bodily characteris- 
tics of these sons from that of their fathers must have 
proceeded from their different habits during the time 
of their respective growths, in which there was some 
difference, both in respect to diet and other attend- 
ants. The first (being the second generation) during 
their growth had for their eatables bread of unbolted 
w^heat meal and meat soups, thickened with such meal, 
and they had a great proportion of wild meat of ani- 
mals, fowls and fishes, which were yet plentiful here at 
that time. These diets their children did not have 
during the time of their growth, excepting a meal of 
fresh wild meat sometimes. They had rye bread and 
pork and beef, preserved with salt. This meat was 
generally used for dinner, together with some potatoes, 
turnips, and other kinds of roots and vegetables. 
Bread and butter, mush and milk, and other milk diets 
potatoes, turnips, and other roots and vegetables, were 
plentiful here during the growth of the first as well as 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 113 

the second of those two classes of people. ISIow, in 
addition to the change mentioned, there was another 
of a different nature, which must have affected in a 
small degree tlie growth of the first, and in a great 
degree that of the latter. This was the effect of the 
French and Revolutionary wars, in each of which a 
fort was built at the house of Gumaer, and his neigh- 
bors all collected in it, which had the effect of creating 
more impure air in it than when occupied by one 
family. This, in the first war, could not hurt the con- 
stitutions of the children as much as in the next, be- 
cause its duration was shorter, and most of them were 
sent from here to relatives in other places, and there 
were not as many in the fort as in the last war when 
the number in it of all classes was about 100 from the 
time the fort was built in 1777 until the war ended. 
The walls of the house, both in the rooms below and 
on the chamber, were all lined with beds, and although 
the inmates of the house remained healthy, yet the col- 
lection of so many people in it, and their beds and 
bedding, must have created much impure air,especially 
in the night when the doors were shut and all were in 
it, whereby the constitutions of the children must have 
become weakened and their growth retarded, so as to 
have remained both weaker and smaller than what 
they would have been if the war had not occurred. 
This stagnation of growth, which caused the third gen- 
eration to remain inferior in strength to their respec- 
tive fathers, did not continue to debilitate in the same 
ratio, the fourth class, but these arrived to about or 
nearly the same strength of body as that of their 
fathers. In relation to health, however, there has 
been a gradual decline, and people have now become 



114 HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 

more subject to disease in this town tlian in former 
times. 

The Holland Dutch, who settled throughout this 
valley, must have had sound and strong constitutions, 
which their children inherited unimpaired, and the 
manner in which thej were brought up aod lived 
during the time of their growtli in this valley must 
have been very conducive to sustain health and pro- 
mote strength. 



CHARACTERS. 

There are certain predominating characteristics in 
families which, in some cases, will remain in their den- 
cendants from generation to generation for a great 
length of time, and some of those of the first pioneers 
have thus continued in some degree in their line of 
descent up to the present time ; and where intermar- 
riages have occurred, of such different characters, they 
have generally become united in the children and, in 
some cases, this union resulted in better characters 
than that of either of the originals,and in others, worse. 

In respect to the characteristics of five sons of the 
first families who remained in the Peenpack neighbor- 
hood, I will here give a short narration, to Avit : 

Major James Swartwout was a large, heavy, 
strong, portly and likely man, of a noble and dig- 
nified appearance, very suitable for a military officer, 
and was possessed of a spirit . as noble as his ap- 
pearance. He was very witty, jocose and humor- 
ous in conversation (these were Swartwout fam- 
ily traits), and he was too liberal and easy in his busi- 
ness aftairs to accumulate property, in consequence of 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 115 

which he became much involved. He was generally 
consulted in matters of difficulty, in respect to which I 
will relate one instance, to wit : 

At a certain time after the fall of a light snow, the 
members of a certain family who were neighbors to 
him, discovered apparently the tracks of a person on 
the roof of the house where no person could walk,which 
extended from one end of the roof to the other end. 
This alarmed the family, who thought it ominous of 
some calamity which would happen to them, and after 
some conversation respecting it, concluded it was best 
to send for Major Swartwout, to see Avhat he would 
think of it. They accordingly got him there, who, on 
viewing it, concluded in his mind that it had been done 
by some person, and mistrusted a slave of the family, 
who kept near them to hear what would be said re- 
specting it. He stepped up to the black man and ac- 
cused him of doing it, which was denied. The Major 
told him he had done it and that if he did not own it 
he would give him a flogging, and still denying, the 
Major took a gad and gave him two or three whip- 
pings before he would own it, and after owning it the 
Major told him if he would tell how he did it he would 
let him go. He said he took a long pole and fastened 
a shoe to the end and therewith made the tracks. This 
eased the family of their fearful apprehensions. 

William Cuddeback was a man of somewhat over 
six feet stature, coarse-boned, muscular and lean. 
He was strong and very nimble, and could outrun 
many young men after he was fifty years old. In 
the French war, after his hair had begun to turn 
gray, he outran a soldier who thought himself 
swift. He was very talkative and witty, and I 



116 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

think from what information I have had in rela- 
tion to him, that he never had his equal in this 
town for humorous discourse and a display of wit 
properly and suitably applied. He was characterised 
as a wise man in his time. Argument was his hobby, 
and, as there was much of it in his time in relation to 
the Scriptures, he, although uneducated, became so 
versed therein that when among strangers he was often 
thought to be a well read man. He was a disbeliever 
in the superstitious notions which many people in his 
time ha,d in relation to witchcraft, &c., and would often 
tell very laughable occurrences in respect thereto He 
was somewhat slack in his business concerns and care- 
less in paying attention to the same, but lie always had 
help enough to manage the business of his farm. 

Peter Gumaer was a man of about five feet ten 
inches stature. During the time of my acquaintance 
with him he was fleshy and fat, and in his younger 
days was a very persevering business man. He never 
was a hard working nor an idle man himself, but all 
his children and slaves performed a great amount of 
labor. His family produced a greater amount of 
farmer's productions than any other farmer within 20 
or 30 miles distance from his residence, and he had all 
the necessary fixtures for his different branches of 
business in the best manner of his time. He would 
not suffer idleness in his family, and was inimical to it 
in others. He was a man of good judgment and of an 
honest a,nd independent principle. 

Gerardus Van Inwegen was a man of about five feet 
eight or nine inches stature. He was lean, bony, mus- 
cular and strong, and had much of the Swart wout 
jocose and humorous disposition. He was the only sou 



HISTORY OF DEERPARE. 117 

of his father, and was brought up without work, and 
ill his neighborhood became fond of hunting, and did 
much of it in company with the white and Indian boys 
of the neighborhood, and in early life became a very 
skillful hunter and took great delight in it. He con- 
tinued to follow it throu?;h life, and killed more deer, 
bears and other wild animals and wild fowls than any 
other man of his time in this vicinity, whereby he not 
only obtained a very plentiful supply of those meats 
for his own family, but contributed liberally to those 
of Cuddeback and Gumaer, his neighbors, and enjoyed 
a very happy life. He was much addicted to playing 
tricks on people, and, when any of them happened to 
be offensive, he could generally end the matter in good 
humor. (It appears those ancients generally were well 
calculated to extinguish those offensive occurrences 
and restore friendship, by means of which they main- 
tained friendly relations with each other and with the 
Indians.) 

At a certain time he put a mean, dirty trick on a 
company of squaws and their children, which they dis- 
covered in going to a certain place, and immediately 
laid it to Gerardus, and, on their return, stopped at his 
lioiise and accused him of it. He asked what made 
them think he had done it. They told him no other 
man in the neighborhood would do such a nasty trick ; 
that he was worse than a hog and they would have sat- 
isfaction for that trick. After some altercation respect- 
ing it, he got a pail of cider and gave them as much 
as they would drink, which cheered them all up and 
they went off in good humor, laughing at those who 
fared the worse. 

Samuel Swartwout was reputed to have been a very 



118 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

strong paaD, and naturally easy and very good natured, 
not easily provoked to anger nor easily scared. He, 
by liunttng ftnd trapping, obtained a supply of meat 
and some other necessaries for his famil3^ He had a 
valuable farm, but had no help to work it. Laborers 
could not be hired. After Depuy married his daughter 
he brought some slaves from his father's, and, with 
these, Depuy worked the farm and produced mucli 
wheat and other grain. Swartwout was on very 
friendly terms with the Indians, and when he removed 
from the residence of his father, he settled, as has been 
mentioned, among a collection of Indians. 

In order to give some idea of Swartwout's boldness 
and of having been so characterized,I will relate a certain 
transaction, to wit : A certain Indian in his time had 
made a false face of a very frightful appearance, which 
was obt'-iined from him by two or three of the young 
men. It was said that when it was put before a man's 
lace and a bear skin wrapped around his body, the ap- 
pearance in the night was very terrifying. They gave 
the man so dressed the name of Santa Claus. On a 
certain winter evening this Santa Glaus went round 
among the families and frightened the members of four 
of them by this imprudent exhibition. After this t4iey 
concluded to try it' the)^ could not scare the fearless 
Swartwout. Santa Claus went and entered his house, 
Swartwout sat before the tire, and, on seeing him, rose 
from his chair, took hold of it, and put himself in a 
position to strike. Santa Claus, fearing the blow, said, 
" Uncle Samuel, don't strike." Swartwout told him to 
go out of the house, or he would split his brains, and 
added, " If you are the devil, or from the devil, go to 
where you belong." 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 119 

These five men and their fathers had to encounter 
many difficulties to retain the possession of nearly half 
the land they claimed under the patent against Jersey 
claimants, and it appears they were well qualified in all 
respects to counteract them. An account of this is 
contained in Eager's history. 



CHARA.CTEKITTICS OF A FEW INDIVIDUALS 
OF THE SECOND GENEKATION. 

Capt. Abraham Cuddeback was a man of six feet 
stature and over 200 lbs. weight. He was strong and 
athletic, and could with ease jump a five -railed post or 
rail fence. He was very handsomely built, and in all 
respects a ver}" good looking man. He possessed a 
great mechanical genius, dexterity and good judgment. 
When quite young, seeing how shoemakers and weavers 
performed their work, he commenced and did the shoe- 
making and weaving for his father's family, and became 
the best shoemaker and the best and quickest weaver 
before he was a man grown of any in this vicinity. In 
the time of the French w^ar his father sent him to Old 
Paltz, where, and in Rochester, he followed weaving 
and had no equal in those places. After that war 
ended the people here generally were destitute of fan- 
ning mills, and cleaned their grain with hand fans. He 
had seen one at Gumaer's and may have seen a few at 
the Old Paltz. He undertook and made one for his 
father or himself, and afterwards made several ; one for 
my father, which was done in a good and handsome 
workmanlike manner, with which was cleaned all the 
grain of those in the fort at my father's during the 



120 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

Revolutionary War, and thereafter all his own grain 
during his life. Before the commencement of that 
war a Mr. John Williams had given him some instruc- 
tion for laying out the frame work of a house and 
barn, from which he considered himself enabled to do 
the carpenter work of such buildings, and did the car- 
penter work of a house and one or two barns before 
the war commenced, and after it ended a house and 
barn for himself and two or three other barns. After 
the war ended, he made a turning bench, repaired the 
old spinning-wheels in the neighborhood, turned 
spools, clevises, &c., for rigging the same. Before the 
war commenced, the wagons here had all been obtained 
from Roch9ster, in Ulster county, some of which were 
nearly worn out at its end, an d a few years thereafter 
he undertook to contrive how to make a wagon. He 
said the greatest puzzle he had in mechanical work was 
to study out rules to make the wheels (of which he was 
entirely ignorant), but, after thinking over it, he dis- 
covered by what means he could make the same. After 
this he made wagons in a good and w^orkmanlike man- 
ner, and in as good style as those wdiich had been ob- 
tained from Rochester. He afterwards made pleasure 
sleighs according to the Kingston fashion of his time, 
of which there were only one or two old ones in this 
neighborhood as good and handsome as those wliich^ 
in his time, had been made at Kingston, except paint- 
ing, which he did not do. He made the best ploughs, 
and all kinds of farming utensils, of any which were 
ma<3e in his tiaie in this part of our country. He was 
the greatest marksman at shooting with a rifle and one 
of the best hunters. And, notwithstanding all these 
acquisitions an d the attention he paid to his farm, he 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 121 

was one of the greatest idlers in the neighborhood, 
and did often for the sake of conversation visit his 
neighbors, and when in company of the best informed, 
woukl generally introduce subjects to create argument, 
either in accordance with his own views or contrary 
thereto, so as to produce argumentation in which he 
delighted and was the best means of discovering the 
natural and acquired abilities of his opponent. He 
said he knew the mental abilities and natural charac- 
teristics of nearly all the men who were contemporary 
with him for a distance of 20 miles down the Never- 
sink and Delaware rivers, and 40 miles toward King- 
ston. In his time Marbletown was the general mar- 
ket place for the inhabitants in this valley throughout 
the distance mentioned, and. their travel to and from 
market made a great intercourse of those people, 
whereby they acquired a general acquaintance with 
each other. In respect to which I will relate an occur- 
rence. In the commencement of the Revolutionary 
War, John Westbrook, who lived about 20 miles dis- 
tant from Cuddeback's residence, was elected captain 
of a company of militia, and, in saluting him, he 
was blinded by the discharge of one of the guns, and 
remained blind. About 15 years thereafter, Jacob 
Cuddeback, son of Capt. Cuddeback, went to Mr. 
Westbrook's, and, after speaking to him, asked Mr. 
Westbrook if he knew him. He said he did not, but 
the voice was that of Capt. Cuddeback, which he still 
remembered, and judged from the resemblance of the 
voice of the son to that of the father, though they had 
not been together during that time. 

In addition to what has been said respecting his 
mechanical acquirements, he became a workman in the 



122 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

business of tailoring. In tlie commencement of the 
war there were no men tailors in this town, and he 
first cut for himself ; in sewing his daughter assisted 
him, and thereafter sometimes cut for others ; and in 
the winters, when all were collected in the fort, he and 
his daughter did so much at it, especially in cutting 
and making up of deerskin leather, that he became a 
good workman and had not his equal here before a 
Mr. Mather, a tailor by trade, came into the fort. 

It was said that at a certain time he and his wife 
took each a pound of frolic flax to spin, which 
she refused to do for him. He said he would do it 
himself and beat her. She was one of the quickest 
spinsters in the neighborhood and thought that impos- 
sible, and one morning both commenced on a strife, 
and he did beat her. At the frolic they exhibited their 
yarn, and his was adjudged as good as hers. While 
spinning she lost a little time to suckle a child. If he 
had ever spun any it must have been when he was a 
boy. He bad not his equal in this town cradling grain. 
It was said that a few others in their ordinary way of 
cutting might have been equal to him, but whenever 
he undertook to race with a man, he made a reserve 
that his competitor should cut as large a swath as 
himself and as good, which no one could do, and cut 
as fast as he could. 

At a certain time in going with my compass and 
chai»i to take the distance across the Neversink river, 
to determine how long a bridge it would require to 
reach across it, at a place where it was contemplated 
to build it, I met Cuddeback, who asked me where I 
was going to survey. I told him to take the distance 
across the river, to ascertain how long a bridge it 



, HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 123 

would require to reach across it. He asked me if that 
could be done. I told him I could do it. This ap- 
peared to be new to him and someAvhat mysterious. A 
few days afterwards I saw him again, when he told me 
that he had discovered how the distance could be 
taken across the river, and informed me of the manner 
in which it could be done. He differed some from 
one of the theories by which it was sometimes done, 
but embraced the same principle and was as correct to 
ascertain the distance as that theory generally prac- 
ticed where the land is level. 

Having been commissioned captain of a company of 
militia at or before the commencement of the Revolu- 
tionary War, he had many duties to perform during 
the same in that official capacity ; for which, as well as 
a mechanic, he had very suitable abilities. He was 
bold, sagacious, prudent, and tenacious of his honor ; 
he also was humane to those in his power. The fol- 
lowing were some of his military services, to wit : 

He was first stationed at Fort Montgomery to com- 
mand the men of his company, who from time to 
time had to take turns to serve as militia soldiers in 
that fort ; and, previous to the attack of the fort, on 
the day it was made, he was sent with a company 
across the river to prevent the enemy from loosening 
the chain which had been put across it. This chain 
ran through the centre of three successive logs, fast- 
ened round it to prevent it from sinking, and was put 
there to prevent the English ships from running up the 
river. On those logs the company crossed the river 
and watched at the end of the chain until sometime in 
the night after the fort had been taken, when, from 
some unknown cause, the men became frightened and 



124 HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 

ran. He followed tliem a short distance, but could 
not -find any of them. He staid there till morning, 
and was alone to defend the premises. After daylight 
he took a distant view of the English shipping ; had 
an invitation to come on board, with a promise of good 
usage. He went home. 

At Cochecton, 40 miles distant through the woods 
from this neighborhood, some families continued to 
live, and for their own safety kept in friendship with 
the Indians as long as they dared. In the first instance 
when danger began to be apprehended of attacks from 
the enemy, the Committee of Safety sometimes sent 
Captain Cuddeback with a few men to Cochecton to 
procure what information he could relative to the In- 
dians, to discover whether there was any danger here 
of being attacked by them. In these scouts he had to 
be cautious to evade as much as possible the sight of 
the Indians, and entered that place secretlj- in the 
night, where at one or two houses he made secret in- 
quiry respecting the Indians, and in the same night 
left the place and returned back, and, in going and re- 
turning, tried to discover signs of Indians. After two 
or three such scouts the Indians made an attack, in 
1777, on the family of a Mr. Sprague, and next year 
on the family of a Mr. Brooks, some of whom they 
killed and others were taken prisoners. These attacks 
made the Committee act with vigilance. Persons sus- 
pected of being inimical to their country's cause were 
apprehended and tried. One or more of those at Co- 
checton were complained of, whom the Captain, with a 
few men, fetched from that place. In one instance he 
had trouble to save his prisoner from the revengeful 
abuse of a Mr. Brooks, one of the family who had 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 125 

suffered from tlie enemy as mentioned. The prisoner, 
to reward the Captain for interfering in his favor, pre- 
sented him with a very handsome powder-horn and 
bullet pouch. These were used by the Captain during 
the war and thereafter, together with one of the best 
of rifles. 

When the enemy in 1778 invaded the Peenpack 
neighborhood, the Captain resided at the Gumaer fort 
and had the command of the men in it. In the first 
instance he ordered all the pitchforks in the bara to 
be brought into the fort to prevent its being scaled, 
and directed the w^omen to put on the spare coats and 
hats in the house, and each of them to take a pitch- 
fork or other stick and put it on her shoulder. After 
being so equipped to appear like soldiers, he paraded 
all the men and the women back of the house and fort 
in single file, and, after the enemy came in sight, he 
ordered the drum to be beaten and marched them to 
the front side of the fort, where they all passed into it 
in view of the enemy, after which he ordered all the 
women and children to go into the cellar. Anna Swart- 
wout, a large, robust woman, widow of Major Swart- 
wout, asked permission to stay with the men in the 
fort to assist them, which was granted. She took one 
of the pitchforks to help defend the scaling of the 
fort, in case it should be undertaken. The enemy 
passed round the east side in open file at a distance 
out of gunshot ; a few guns, however, were fired, but 
ammunition was scarce and reserved for actual engage- 
ment ; balls were run the same day. As the enemy 
passed to where the barn intervened between them and 
the fort, the Captain and Jacob D. Gumaer went into 
it to prevent its being set on fire by them. Some of 



126 HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 

tlie euemy in passing along the river came to a woman, 
who had fled, and told her to go and tell the women in 
the fort that hundreds of Indians would be there be- 
fore night, and if they wanted to save themselves they 
must leave the fort. This being done made a great 
scare among them, and some made ready to go out of 
it. The Captain ordered them all to stay in it, to 
which they quietly submitted. After the enemy had 
passed towards Fort De Witt, a little smoke was seen 
to rise on the roof of Cornelius Van Inwegen's house, 
which was about 60 or 70 rods distant from the fort. 
The Captain and Thomas White went and extinguished 
the fire, which had just begun to burn. It w^as said by 
certain tories, who returned after the war ended, that 
the enemy had such a good feast of victuals and cider 
at this house that they concluded not to burn it. The 
fire must have originated from the act of a single indi- 
vidual, or the burning of the barn. At Fort De Witt 
the enemy took a station on a hill, in woods, within 
gunshot of the fort, and fired several volleys against 
the wall of the house and picket fort. After a few 
volleys were fired, Benjamin Cuddeback, a brother of 
the Captain, challenged the enemy to show themselves, 
and, although they were out of sight, he, with a long 
Esopus gun, heavily loaded, returned some shots, 
whereby they became about as much exposed to his 
firing as the inmates of the fort were to their firing. 
In returning they passed on the west of the other fort, 
where they tried to catch some of my father's horses, 
which his black man Jack happened to see, who step- 
ped out of the fort and shot, which started both horses 
and the enemy so as to let the horses go. A fire was 
returned at Jack, and the Captain pulled him back into 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 127 

the fort. The enemy left, took some of the best horses, 
pluudered and burnt houses and other buildings, and 
that day went out of the neighborhood. 

In July, 1779, after the lower neighborhood had 
been invaded by the enemy, and a corps of militia 
from Goshen and its vicinity wlio had volunteered to 
pursue the enemy arrived in that neighborhood, Capt. 
Cuddeback and some others out of this town joined in 
the pursuit, in which the officers, after having pro- 
ceeded to a distance from the neighborhood into the 
woods, began to have their consultations in respect to ■ 
continuing or returning, also in respect to the best 
place to attack the enemy, in case of undertaking it. 
The opinions of Captain Tyler and Captain Cudde- 
back, who were acquainted with the path and woods, 
were had. Tyler proposed to make the attack where 
the enemy had to cross the Delaware river, and Cud- 
deback to make it in the night, where the enemy should 
lodge for their night's rest ; there to fall on them un- 
awares, drive them from their prisoners and plunder, 
recover these and return homeward with them in the 
night. 

Very reasonable objections were made to both these 
plans by the superior officers ; but, in case of attack^ 
Tyler's plan was preferred by the officers generally, 
and was urged, as is well known, by very improper 
means. 

In the battle, Cuddeback, with a dress of the color 
of the leaves, one of the best rifles and other equip- 
ments, and a very great marksman, was one of the 
most important fighting men of the corps, and remained 
on the fighting ground until after the retreat had com- 
menced, and until he saw he had to run to save his life, 



128 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

when lie ran a short distance to one side of the course 
(the mass of men ran) where he squat down, cocked his 
rifle and kept ready to shoot any Indian who should 
happen to look at him, wliere he remained undiscov- 
ered by those who passed him until a large Indian, 
came slowly walking and looking round, at last turned 
his face towards him when he shot and again ran, and 
in coming to steep rocks he slid down the same on his 
back ; and when he came to a good place to hide he 
again hid and laid down. Here he remained until 
dark, and from thence in the night started for home. 

The militia soldiers, like the Indians, fought from 
behind trees, stumps, rocks, etc. John Wallace, one 
of Cuddeback's militia company, kept near his Cap- 
tain at the different stations to which he was from time 
to time removed by his superior officers. At one of 
which Wallace received a slight wound, and in the 
flight made his escape but became separated from Cud- 
deback, and in returning home hunted through the 
woods and killed three deer. After Cuddeback had 
been home three days, Wallace unexpectedly arrived 
with three deer skins on his back, to the great joy of his 
wife and two children. 

Cuddeback commended Col. Tusten very highly, and 
said he felt sorry for him when he was wounded ; that 
when the retreat commenced he was called to where 
the Col. and other wounded officers and men were 
collected in the safest place, and was solicited to try 
find stop the retreat, but that was impossible ; it had 
become too general. He had to leave tliem to their 
fate, or become a sufferer together with them, and 
made his escape as mentioned. The retreat was caused 
by a hideous shouting, yelling and firing of guns,which 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 129 

had been undertaken by the Indians as a last resort to 
put their opponents to flight ; and it. happened to have 
the desired effect. Until this occurence, the men who 
suffered much in different ways from heat, warm cloth- 
ing, want of water and wounds, wonderfully sustained 
themselves for militia soldiers against an enemy who 
had very great advantages in all respects. 

Cuddeback, in his domestic concerns, had a great 
share of indulgence towards his family and domestics, 
but was uncommonly severe in reproof if any of his 
children happened to do an act of which he much dis- 
approved, although these never were of a criminal 
natui-e. He had an uncommon gift to stigmatize and 
reprove a bad action. 

Benjamin De Pay, Esquire, was a man of about six 
feet stature, not as bony, muscular and strong as the 
descendants of the first settlers. He was a persever- 
ing business man, but after he had been a few years 
in this neighborhood he became too fleshy and fat to 
perform any labor on his farm himself, but still paid a 
very strict attention to his farming business, the labor 
of which he managed to have done b}^ his slaves, and 
sons after they became able to work. He became a 
Justice of the Peace here of the former county of 
Ulster, and served many years in that office before, in, 
and after the Avar. He also served many years as a 
Supervisor of the old town of Mamakating. In the 
commencement of the war he was one of the Commit- 
tee of Safety. He was the greatest supporter of religi- 
ous worship in the Mahackamack congregation. He 
was tender and humane to his wife, children and slaves, 
and provided a very plentiful living for all of them, in 
respect to diet and the necessities of life, even to ex- 



130 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

cess. He had a strong memory and retained much of 
what had transpired throughout this valley from here 
to Kingston. 

Depuy was a heavy load on a horse and had about 
as good luck as Alexander the Great had in obtaining 
a suitable riding horse for him. This great conqueror 
had one to carry him safely in his great battles and 
extensive conquests, and De Puy had one which car- 
ried hm safely for many years and on many bad roads 
until age rendered him unable to continue his services. 
The former built a city and named it Bucephala, after 
the name of his great war horse " Bucephalus," and 
the latter continued to feed and nourish his horse as 
long as it lived, and even sometimes with bread. I 
happened to come to his house at one time jast after he 
had given his horse some bread. He then told me that 
this horse had never fallen with him in all his travels. 
He related to me that at a certain time he and some 
other gentlemen went on a very rough, stony road 
along Basha's Kill in great haste to arrive in time at a 
certain meeting ; that some o'f the horses did often 
stumble, and in one or two instances fell, and that his 
horse traveled over it without making a single blunder. 
All his travels on this horse must have amounted to 
some thousands of miles distance. About one half of 
his farm was between one and two miles distant from 
his house, and whenever his laborers worked on those 
lands he generally went to them on this horse once or 
twice a day. He had to go every year twice or oftener 
to Esopus, 50 miles distant, to perform his official 
duties and to many other places where his civil and 
church offices called him. The horse was strongly 
built for carrying, had a slow, easy pace, and was very 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 131 

kind. The continual exercise De Puy had on his 
horse and sometimes in the wagon and sleigh for do- 
ing his business at the mill, stores, blacksmith's, &c., 
had a tendency to keep him healthy, yet he had a 
few short, hard sicknessess, but continued to live to a 
good old age, and in the last part of his life sold the 
part of his farm which he had retained and was re- 
moved by his sons to the town of Owasco, where, and 
in that part of Kew York, all his sons and daughters, 
excepting two, had previously settled, and there his 
mortal life was ended. 

Philip Swartwout was a large, strong man, upwards 
of six feet in stature, portly and likely. Captain Cud- 
deback, who had seen General Washington at Fort 
Montgomery, said he had never seen a man who re- 
sembled Washington as much as Esquire Swartwout ; 
the features of his face, his eyes, forehead, size and 
form of his body, all he. said, had a great resemblance 
to those of Washington. 

Swartwout in his business transactions was very per- 
severing and honest. In his public acts he was also 
honest and persevering to obtain the objects of jus- 
tice between individuals, and also to promote the wel- 
fare of the public. He was a Justice of the Peace of 
the former county of Ulster before the Revolutionary 
War commenced, and in its commencement became 
one of the Committee of Safety. After the decease of 
his father, August 2ist, 1756, he became heir to his 
estate, which consisted of a good farm, but was so 
much encumbered by the debts of his father, that he 
concluded to let the creditors take it. These were 
relatives of his, who resided at Rochester, in Ulster 
county. They advised Swartwout to take the farm 



132 HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 

and they would give him liis own time to pay the debts, 
in consequence of which he obligated liimself to pay 
the debts and took the farm. His oldest boys must 
have been about 10 or 12 years old at this time. He 
had one man slave and an insane man lived with him, 
wdio remained in the family during life. With this 
• help he commenced to work the farm, and, after his 
son James became old enough to learn the blacksmith 
trade, he built a shop, got a blacksmith, who, together 
with James, pursued that business, and the father, 
with his otlier sons and slave, worked the farm and 
made money iast, so that he paid all his debts, and had 
money standing out at interest when the war com- 
menced. 

Swartwout, as well as Depuy, was a great supporter 
of religious worship, and paid a strict attention to the 
preaching of the gospel. 

Anthoii)' Van Etten, Esquire, was from Rochester 
or its vicinity, where he had received a good educa- 
tion for his time. His visage and bodily form and size 
Avere said to have resembled his youngest son Anthony 
Van Etten, who was a man of about 5 feet 10 inches 
stature, and about 160 lbs. weight. He was a black- 
smith by trade and became married to Hannah 
Decker, daughter of Thomas Decker, in 1750, and ob- 
tained from him a piece of land, on which he built a 
house and shop, and entered into the business of his 
trade, and got an apprentice to assist him. He soon 
received a great amount of work from the farmers and 
made money fast. He built the stone house in which 
his son, Captain Henry Van Etten, formerly lived, and. 
as he became enabled, bought land and obtained the 
old Van Etten farm, which consisted of some of the 



HISTOKY OF DEERPARK. 133 

best land in this town. He and Esq. Swartwout, who 
were contemporary, both commenced business with 
small means, and became the most thriving business 
men in this town. Yan Etten became a Justice of the 
Peace of the old county of Orange at an early period 
of his residence in this town, in which he officiated to 
the end of his life in 1778. His widow survived him 
many years. She was a short, strong woman of a good 
constitution, an affectionate mother and agreeable 
neighbor, sociable and much addicted to humorous 
conversation, and often told funny occurrences of 
former times. ^^ 

Cornelius Van Inwegen was a man of about 5 feet 8 
inches stature, and about 170 or 180 pounds Aveight. 
In his boyhood, after he was able to handle a gun, he 

* Anthony Van Etten, was a son of Jacob Van Etten, and Aritie 
Westbrook, who were married at Kingston, Ulster county, New York, 
April 22d, 1719, they both being residents of that county at the time. 
They had a large family and came with them to the Delaware valley 
about 1730, taking up a residence at Namenoch, opposite the island in the 
Delaware now so called, on the New Jersey side. Their oldest daughter* 
Magdelena, married Rev. Johan. Casp. Fryenmuth. From their sons are 
descended the various Van Etten families of Orange county, N. Y., Pike 
county. Pa., and Sussex county, N. J. 

Anthony was born about 1.726 at Napenoch, Ulster county, and bap- 
tized at Kingston Ref. D. Church, June 12, 1726, At the time of his mar- 
riage, August 3d, 1750, he resided at Namenoch, but thereafter with his 
wife located in what is now the town of Deerpark. 

The baptismal records of the Maghachemech Church furnish the names 
of most of their large family of children as follows : 

Thomas, bap. Sept. 8, 1751 ; Antie, bap. Jan. 14, 1753 ; Janneke, bap. 
April 28, 1754 ; Margarieta, bap. Feb. 13, 1756 ; Levi, bap. Feb. 12, 1758 ; 
Alida, bap. Aug. 19, 1759 ; Hendricus, bap. June 14, 1761 ; Blandina, 
bap. Sept. 4, 1763 ; Maria, bap. Nov. 11, 1765 ; Thomas, bap. Oct. 16, 
1768 ; Jacob, 1774 ; Anthony, bap. Oct. 29, 1780. 

Of their sons, Levi married Grannetje Westbrook, and from them are 
descended most of the families now in Deerpark, Anthony, Jr., married 
Jemmia Cuddeback, and located in central New York. A. V. E., Jr. 



134 HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 

became very fond of hunting, and he and Capt. Cud- 
deback, when boys, generally hunted together, and 
both became well skilled therein ; which the latter 
partially quit when he arrived to manhood, but Yan 
Inwagen continued to follow it through life and killed 
more deer, bears, and other wild animals and wild 
fowls, than any other individual of this town ever did 
since he became a hunter. No family in the neighbor- 
hood enjoyed as plentiful a supply of the best of wild 
meats as his family, and, being liberal therewith, he 
often contributed some to my father's family and to 
Capt. Cuddeback's, who were his nearest neighbors. 
The numerous skins of deers which he acquired were 
valuable for himself and family, and for all his neigh- 
bors. In his time the men and boys all w^ore short 
leather breeches of deerskin, and some of the men had 
leather coats to put on in dry weather to perform rough 
and dirty work, and in the latter part of his life some 
individuals wore leather frocks in which to perform 
such work. Moccasins of deerskin leather were also 
much worn in winter. Deerskin leather was valuable 
for the inhabitants of this town in the time of the war, 
in consequence of the inconvenience of manufacturing 
cloth during that time. In those cheap times, wdien 
rye and corn were only four shillings a bushel, a good 
buckskin was allowed to be worth from twenty shillings 
to three dollars before dressed. 

Now, these characters, which differed very widel}^ 
were all necessary for the general welfare of the com- 
munity. The other inhabitants of the second gener- 
ation, and their contemporaries in the lower neighbor- 
hood as well as those mentioned, were useful members 
of society, and each did more or less contribute 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 135 

towards the welfare of otliers. They were generally 
an industrious, honest, prudent and economizing peo- 
ple, who obtained their living by the sweat of their 
brow, and had to manage their business suitable to 
their circumstances and means of procuring a liveli- 
hood. 

Men in a state of nature, like the wild animals, gen- 
erally live on the spontaneous productions of the earth, 
and each has to procure its own food after the parent's 
help becomes unnecessary. The first settlers here were 
nearly in the same self-procuring situation, and only 
had a few manufactured implements in advance of the 
naked-handed Indians. 

By the introduction of scientific knowledge men have 
become dependent on each other, and thereby enabled 
advantageously to cultivate the earth and provide for 
a very numerous population, and also create enjoy- 
ments far beyond what the unimproved races of man- 
kind can realize. The numerous branches of mechan- 
ical and scientific works and occupations employ 
millions of people, who obtain a living thereby. Each 
of these produce materials and literary works whereby 
others become interested, all of which create an exten- 
sive social intercourse which reaches all the civilized 
and manufacturing nations of the earth ; and, even in 
a small degree, some of the unimproved races of man- 
kind. 

All this beautiful order among men, for which they 
are formed, suitable in body and mind, if the same 
could be sustained without imposition and unerring 
conduct in all respects, might render man very happy, 
but destruction has been the fate of the ancient civi- 
lized nations who had, in a greater or less degree, be- 



136 , HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 

come an improved and scientific people, and good 
reasons must have existed for producing this extin- 
guishment. 

In the year 1792, I was constable and collector of 
the old town of Mamakating, in Ulster couot}^ which 
then extended from the old county line near tlie pres- 
ent dwelling house of Philip Swartwout, Esquire, and 
son, about 20 miles northeasterly, and from Shawan- 
gunk Kill north westerl}^ about forty-five miles to or 
beyond Cochecton, and included part of the present 
towns of Deerpark, Mount Hope, Mamakating, Forest- 
burgh, Lumberland and Cochecton. The town was 
divided into two collector's districts, of which mine was 
the largest, and the amount of tax I had to collect 
was £15 Os. 6d., ($37.56). 

The highest taxpayer on the list was Esquire 
Depuy, whose tax was seven shillings, ten pence, 
one farthing, and the whole number of persons taxed 
in my district, 45 miles long and part of it about 12 
miles wide, was 182. From this neighborhood to Co- 
checton, (40 miles distant) there was only a foot path 
through the woods on which I traveled on foot and 
carried a knapsack, in consequence of the scarcity of 
horse feed and provisions along it. Rafting masts, 
spars, logs, and a few boards had previously com- 
menced. The timber at that time was principally got 
from the sides of the mountains and hills bordering on 
the river, under great disadvantages, for want of teams 
and a road, until one was made with the Stata funds 
from the residence or grist mill of Captain William 
Rose to Cochecton, about the year 1803. After this 
the lumber business increased rapidly and became very 
great, whereby the inhabitants of this town became 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 137 

greatly benefitted,botli by the market it made for their 
produce and the money some individuals made by that 
business. At the close of the war Orange County was 
very thinly settled, and most of the land unimproved. 
Low as the taxes Avere in 1792, I found several un- 
able to pay a few pence, and thereby lost about the 
amount of my fees. 



GREAT CHANGES IN AGRICULTURE, MANU- 
FACTURES, TRAVEL AND IMPROVE- 
MENTS OF EVERY KIND. 

We of the third generation of the first four families 
and our contemporaries in the lower neighborhood, 
have passed through a period of time in which greater 
improvements have been made in our country than 
ever has been made within such a space of time in any 
country. Its equal, probably, wiil never again occur ; 
yet we know not to what state of improvement men 
^vill arrive. 

The arts and sciences have been stretched far beyond 
their former bounds, and gigantic and minor produc- 
tions have been brought to view by the labor and in- 
genuity our countrymen have displayed, and great are 
the benefits mankind have derived from their labors. 

Some rulers of nations and great generals of ancient 
times have been highly honored for acts of murder and 
plunder to a;^grandize themselves, who, instead of ren- 
dering benefits, were a nuisance in the world. Not so 
with our scientific men. They crave not the loud ap- 
plause of the multitude, but their general welfare and 
their- labors have created benefits far beyond what we 



138 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

can calculate, and all are more or less benefitted from 
the results of their labors. 

We have been spectators of the great changes men- 
tioned and have seen the time when the red men were 
yet among us, and were often refreshed and cheered 
by their white neighbors with something to eat and a 
drink of ci ler ; and the time, when they disappeared 
and a great revolution commenced, and the effects of 
the war it created, the restoration of peace and the 
times when the constitutions of the several States, and 
of the United States, were, from time to time, formed 
and become established, ^^nd the effects of the laws 
Avhicli have from time to time been passed under those 
constitutions, and the great benefits which have re- 
sulted therefrom ; also the career of our first and 
greatest statesmen, who exerted their powers for the 
good of their country. 

And here let us not forget that in the days of our 
boyhood we have seen the time in which the military 
forces of our country, under great sufferings and priva- 
tions, nobly sustained their country's cause to obtain 
an independent government, and have been spectators 
of its achievement and the great results which have 
emanated therefrom ; in respect to wdiich I will here 
give a very faint view of what has transpired in rela- 
tion to the improvements our countrymen have made 
during the time of our life's journey, to wit : 

We have seen the time of the commencement of the 
printing of newspapers in this part of our country after 
the war ended, and the rapid increase and vast extent 
to which that important business has arrived, whereby 
every citizen with small means can now have informa- 
tion of the acts of our legislatures and more than he 



HISTOKY OF DEERPARK. 139 

can read of what continually transpires both in our 
own and other countries. 

We have seen the time when schools were in their 
infancy in this part of our country, their progress and 
the vast extent to which they became multiplied, even 
so that almost every citizen of this State, and generally 
of the other states, has the opportunity of having his 
children educated according to and even, beyond his 
pecuniary means. We have seen the time when there 
was not a minister of the gospel, lawyer or physician, 
within 20 miles distance from our present town, and 
have seen the continual increase of those professional 
men until every town in our county had more or less 
of them, and the increase of education, so that it 
reached nearly all the citizens, few of whom do not 
acquire enough to read and write, and a very great 
proportion have reached the higher branches of learn- 
ing, and become fitted for all the different business 
transactions of our country. 

We have been spectators of the time when all trans- 
portation on the Hudson river was done in vessels, 
whose speed depended on the winds which impelled 
them, and of the time when the ingenuity of Fulton, 
with the help of Chancellor Livingston, produced a 
steamboat wherewith the Hudson river was navigated, 
and, when thereafter others from time to time were 
built, until all the navigable waters with such boats 
in our country were therewith navigated, and even the 
Atlantic Ocean crossed to and from England and other 
places, and the time when other machineries began to 
be impelled by steam power and their increase until 
thousands got into operation. 

We have been travelers on the early rough and 



140 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

stony roads in Orange County and have seen the first 
construction of turnpikes in our county, and the great 
improvement of our highway's, and at Last have beheld 
the gigantic works of canals and railroads, on which 
the value of millions of property is annually trans- 
ported to and from all parts of our country, and thous- 
ands of people are continually enjoying the easy and 
speedy travel thereby furnished. 

We have been co-operators with our respective parents 
in producing all the articles of food and raiment for 
our own subsistence, and when we wanted a few arti- 
cles we could not make, sujh as salt, iron, <fec., we had 
to travel to the store of Nathaniel Owen, 22 miles dis- 
tant or to the store of Cornelius Wynkoop, 40 miles 
distant, to procure the same. After this the ingenuity 
of some of our citizens produced machinery for manu- 
facturing all the cloth we wanted for our use with much 
less cost and labor than what we could formerly manu- 
facture the same ; and these are now so abundantly 
transported into all parts of our country, that our little 
town of Deerpark now has more stores in it than the 
whole county of Orange had at the close of the Eevo- 
lutionary War, and probably as many as there were in 
both tlie counties of Orange and Ulster. These goods, 
by an exchange of commodities for the same, can now 
be procured so much easier than formerly that our 
former apparatus for manufacturing ilax, wool and 
cotton into cloth has become useless. And these stores 
now contain such a variety of articles, that as a cer- 
tain man once said " Many necessaries unnecessary. 

We have taken wheat, rye and corn to New Windsor 
and Newburgh when these were very small places and 
when Goshen was a very small village,and have passed 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 141 

through the time in which all the other villages in 
Orange County had their origin and growth and in 
which the whole country west of the valley in which 
we reside, has become numerously populated through- 
out its present settled parts, in which many handsome 
and magnificent villages and cities liave been built and 
now adorn those parts which, in our early days,were a 
vast wilderness. 

We have seen the time when news traveled from the 
printing presses to us on horseback, and when the 
same became conveyed in light one and two horse 
wagons, and in progressing, stage wagons and steam 
boats became the swiftest carrier of news, and after the 
meridian of our lives the swiftest traveler ever before 
known came into operation, in which news, passen- 
gers and different commodities were conveyed to and 
from distant parts of our country, and in the last part 
of our life's journey originated the wonderful discovery 
of giving instantaneous information of any matter or 
occurrence for any distance to which telegraph wires 
can be extended. 

We have been farmers and inured to all the different 
kinds of labor thereunto appertaining. We have in 
early life ploughed with wooden ploughs, to which a 
wrought share and coulter were fastened, sowed all 
our grain by hand, harrowed the ground with square 
iron teeth harrows, cut all our grain with scythe and 
cradle, threshed all our grain with hand flails, mowed 
all our grass with scythes, and raked our hay together 
with hand rakes, and commenced tillage when the soil 
of our river lands was reduced to its lowest state of 
nutrition since the time their cultivation was first com- 



142 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

menced. In progressing from the beginning of onr 
business transactions, we became plonghers with patent 
ploughs, constructed of wood and iron castings, on 
whicli many improvements were, from time to time, 
made and have passed through tlie time of the intro- 
duction of different kinds of cultivators to cultivate 
ploughed ground, and of sowing machines, reaping 
machines, threshing machines of different kinds, and 
different kinds of horse power to impel the same, mow- 
ing machines to cut grass, and different kinds of horse 
rakes to gather hay, and different kinds of corn shell- 
ers. cutting benches, churning machines, &c., &c. We 
have observed a slow improvement of the lands in this 
town, wliich commenced about the year 1810, and pro- 
gressed very slow at first, but increased in rapidity 
until the present time, 1858, and lands in this town 
now produce about double, what they did in their low- 
est state of cultivation. We have seen the time when 
society here was in the lowest and most degraded state 
in which it has ever been in this valley, and have seen 
its rise and progress from that state to its present good 
and moral behavior. 

Now all these works, which are of inestimable bene- 
fit, are only a small part of the discoveries and im- 
provements made by our countrymen in our time of 
life. We do not claim to have stood alone as observ- 
ers, not that other countries have been idlers in respect 
to inventions and improvements, but that all oiir con- 
temporaries, both in our own and other countries, 
have passed through a period of time which has pro- 
duced greater and more wonderful discoveries than 
that of any other like term of years. 

Our travel on this great highway of research is yet 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 143 

rapidly advancing, and to what extent men will arrive 
is best known to tlie Great Architect who fills the uni- 
verse with his works. 

In consequence of the improvements mentioned and 
the great prosperity of our country, we also became 
spectators of their results in our manner of living, and 
although we have comparatively with others remained 
in humble walks of life, yet we have made great strides 
from our early habits, which, in the days of our youth, 
were governed by destitution and want of means to 
expand and gratify our desires. The greatest com- 
plaint, however, in those anterior times, was the bur- 
den of labor which all had to endure with greater or 
less perseverance, much of which has now been done 
away with by means of machinery. 

Some years after the war ended the inhabitants of 
this town began to make money, and were enabled to 
live in a different style from that of their former habits, 
and articles of fancy were introduced. The acquisi- 
tion of these progressed slow at first but increased as 
people advanced in property and became enabled to 
procure the objects of their desires, and the different 
luxuries thus introduced among us have continued to 
become more numerous until the present time. 

By contrasting the manner of living of our parents 
with that of the present time,we behold the vast change 
made in a term of about half a century. When our 
manner of living became changed diseases began to 
afflict us, and these, as well as our habits of life, have 
continued to increase, which, together with the great 
addition of our population, now generates diseases 



144 HISTOKY OF DEERPARK. 

wliicli give emplojmeufc to the physicians who reside 
among us. 



SCARCITY OF PHYSICIANS IN FORMER TIMES. 

The services of men of their profession rarely reached 
this valley in former times. At Goshen was one or 
more regular physicians in the time of the war, and in 
tlie State of New Jersey, about 20 miles distant from 
this neighborhood, was another. The latter sometimes 
attended Peter Gumaer, my grandfather, who was 
stricken with palsy near the time the war commenced, 
and he and Doctor Sweezy, from Goshen, attended to 
heal the wounds which Cornelius Svvartwout received 
when the Indians invaded this neighborhood. 

In the latter part of the war, and for some years 
after it ended, there lived an old man by the name of 
Beunet, on the east side of Shawangunk mountain in 
the present town of Mount Hope, who in his youth had 
studied medicine, but abandoned it before he became 
qualified to practice. He, however, was sometimes 
called on to attend the sick. He was poor and kept 
no drugs or medicines, but when called on would go 
and see what the ailment of the sick person was, and 
then go out and collect such roots and herbs as he 
judged best to cure the disease, which he used accord- 
ing to the dictates of his judgment. After people in 
our neighborhood began to be afflicted with diseases, 
and when it was considered necessary to have the 
attendance of a physician, this Doctor Bennet was 
employed ; and he generally was quite successful in 
his practice. He several times cured a young man of 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 145 

colic, to which he was subject. This lie performed by 
giving him an emetic, and after it had operated he gave 
him a physic. 

It appears that the constitutions of people become 
adapted to the climate in which they reside, and to 
such habits of life as they from generation to genera- 
tion continue to pursue, and a change of these will 
affect persons more or less. This is evident from what 
is known in relation to the different races of mankind, 
some of whom live very different from others, and the 
exchange of some, whose food differs very widely, 
would be mortal to many of one or both of those races 
who should make the exchange. 

Eight of us, all descendants of the four families, 
now all residents of the lower neighborhood, excepting 
myself, remain yet travelers on the last part of life's 
journey towards that change which all flesh has to un- 
dergo to answer the purposes of the Creator. 



BIRDS, REPTILES AND ANIMALS. 

Among all the changes mentioned, some of us have 
been spectators of nearly an extinction of birds in our 
valley and its vicinity, many different kinds of which 
formerly visited us in the spring of the year and con- 
tinued with us during the summer and a part of the 
fall months. Their active flights from place to place 
and from tree to tree, and their musical voices of dif- 
ferent sounds enlivened and cheered our lonely valley. 
These all had to be active to gratify their cravings of 
what was necessary to sustain life. Some wandered 
along streams of Avater to procure their food ; some 



146 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

hovered liigli in the air of the atmosphere, from which 
they surveyed the lands and waters below them to dis- 
cover the objects they craved for food, from which ele- 
vation the hawk would sometimes dart swiftly down- 
ward among a flock of birds and catch and make a 
prey of one of them, as well as of his objects on the 
ground. The fish-hawk hovered over the waters, the 
cliicken-hawk over the landscapes to entrap their prey. 
The owl made his excursions in the night to seek his 
food, and each of the different tribes of birds possessed 
its own means of obtaining a living. Many of the 
w^orms and insects on the ground, and of those small 
insects which impregnated the air of the atmosphere, 
became a prey of birds. 

Among the different tribes of birds which visited us 
were the following, to wit : Blackbirds of different 
kinds, crows, robins, swallows of different kinds, night- 
ingales, snipe of different kinds, killdeers, cranes of 
different kinds, hawks of different kinds, owls of dif- 
ferent kinds, turtle doves, whippoor wills, wrens of dif- 
ferent kinds, bluebirds, partridges, quails, wood-peck- 
ers, eagles, snow birds, and a few other kinds. 

The pleasing enjoyments of all species of birds are 
evidences of the goodness of their Creator ; and the 
adaptation of all kinds of living creatures whatever to 
their respective modes of life, are evidences of a pre- 
existing plan for the formation of each, and the man- 
ner in which each shall be furnished and receive what- 
ever is necessary for its preservation during life. 

Snakes have also become nearly extinguished in this 
valley within the last half century, previous to wJiich 
there were yet some rattlesnakes, pilots, blacksnakes, 
sissing adders, gartersnakes, greensnakes, and milk- 



HISTORY ,0F DEERPARK. 147 

snakes, and toads and frogs are not as numerous now 
as in former times. 

Now, altliongli some of these reptiles may appear to 
us as unnecessary nuisances, yet tliey undoubtedly 
have answered certain good purposes in their sphere 
of being. A few persons of this neighborhood have 
suffered from the bites of poisonous snakes, but reme- 
dies were here known in former times which saved the 
lives of those who were bitten. Their number within 
my knowledge was six. 

There was a singular occurrence in Rochester, in^ 
Ulster county, in former times, to wit : At an early 
period of the settlement of that place, a certain man 
in time of harvest in going with a wagon, with shelv- 
ings on it, to fetch a load of grain, and, passing near a 
rattlesnake in the grain field, stopped his team, and, 
with a fork which had a very long handle, wherewith 
as he stood in the wagon he reached the" snake and 
began to tease it and soon saw that it began to swell, 
and being anxious to see to what size it would expand 
itself, he continued to tease it until its body became 
swollen to a very large size, when it made a spring and 
passed over wagon and shelvings without touching any 
of it and came down on the ground on the other side 
of the wagon, and, in passing over it, the man very 
narrowly escaped being bitten in his face by the snake 
as he stood in the wagon. Such an occurrence was a 
good warning against trying such experiments. 

Another occurrence of anterior times will show the 
effect of hunger, in the last stage of life, of a certain 
hawk. 

At a certain time when Gerardus Van Inwegen aind 
Abraham Cuddeback were catching pigeons with a net, 



148 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

a hawk came and lit on a fence near them, and contin- 
ued there watching the pigeons until they had made 
some hauls ; and all the ado they made to spring the 
net, run to it, kill and carry the pigeons, &c., did not 
scare the hawk so as to drive him from his place, but 
from his action appeared to want a pigeon. This 
caused Van Inwegen to try the following experiment 
te catch him. He took a pigeon in his hand and held 
it at arm's length before him towards the hawk, and 
walked slowly towards him, and when the pigeon got 
within his reach he took hold of it to eat it, when Yan 
Inwegen caught the hawk and found him to be old and 
starved, and had become unable to procure his food. 

Different opinions have existed in relation to the 
government of the actions of animals, birds and other 
creatures. In respect to which, it is difficult in many 
cases to determine whether certain of their actions are 
governed by the dictates of mind, to answer certain 
purposes, or by an impression on their natures to cause 
their actions without design. The cravings of food 
and other bodily desires emanate from the nature cre- 
ated in their bodies. The way and manner of each 
species to procure its food are dictates of the mind, in 
which some, if not all, display as much tact and cor- 
rectness to obtain their objects as the mind of man 
could direct in their respective bodily capacities. The 
fear of an enemy, or of danger from any cause, is a 
dictate of the mind and affects the body, and both will 
unite their efforts to defend or escape the danger the 
means of which the mind directs, and the body per- 
forms accordingly thereto. 

The fox, the ground-hog and some other creatures 
dig holes in the ground, sometimes under and between 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 149 

rocks, in which to hide and escape from being caught 
by an enemy, and for a safe place to rest and sleep. 
The squirrels will seek places in hollow trees for their 
safety. The bears, which were here in former times, 
when cold weather commenced in November or De- 
cember retired from the open woods into those which 
were thickly timbered with hemlock, and there sought 
and made places under rocks and roots of trees in 
which to lay up all winter, and continued in their 
respective places without mating all winter and re- 
mained fat. Hunters from this neighborhood some- 
times went therein former times, in February or March 
when warm w^eather commenced, and found them with 
their dogs, and killed them in their holes, in which 
some were confined by the frost of the ground and 
w^ere fat. • 

Tha beaver performs the greatest work of the animal 
specieSjWdiicli comprehends a more extensive source of 
enjoyments than what any other creatures have 
achieved, all of which appears to be a preconcerted 
plan of their ow^n to obtain the results of their labors, 
but still may be, as some have thought, an instinct of 
their natures to do it without design. A company of 
beavers will unite, select the best place to build a dam 
across a stream of water where they can overflow the 
greatest extent of ground by damming the stream, and 
the company will all engage in the work cutting down 
brush and saplings with their teeth and bringing the 
same to the place selected for a dam, and there 
place them in the stream, so as to form a dam, 
for which they make use of mud, clay and ground, 
to intermix with the brush, so as to confine in the 
dam both brush, ground, &c., and also to make it 



150 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

tight. After this work is all completed, a male and 
female will unite and dig a hole in the side of a bank, 
which the water will not overflow in times of freshets, 
and commence to dig it under water and raise gradu- 
ally until they get into dry ground above the surface 
level of the water in times of freshets, where they 
make a place in which to lay, repose and sleep in 
safety, where wolves, dogs and enemies of every kind 
cannot find them. The pond also becomes a safe place 
for them, in which they can have their sportive exer- 
cises and furnish them with food. Tliere was in an- 
cient times a beaver-dam in this town near the bridge 
across Basha's kill, on the land of Abraham Cuddeback, 
Esq., which dammed the water so as to overflow a large 
tract of bog meadow land above the bridge. There 
also was a beaver-dam across the Old Dam Brook, on 
the land of Abraham J. Cuddeback, Esq., which also 
overflowed a tract of swamp and bog meadow land. 
There undoubtedly have been others in ancient times 
in this town. These were the two best places in this 
part of the town for Beaver dams, and were on streams 
not subject to freeze much. 

It appears evident that the genius and natural ac- 
tivity of some animals and birds is greater than that 
of others, and that all possess thought, memory, dis- 
cernment, and many of the passions and afi'ections like 
those of human beings ; and have a degree of speech 
in which, by articulate sounds, they can inform each 
other of danger from an enemy, of the finding of food, 
calling each other to come and partake of it, or for- 
bidding it ; and no doubt a great part of the different 
species of animals and birds, especially the latter, have 
more of an extensive language, to communicate to and 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 151 

with each of their respective tribes, than what man 
can discover. When a man happens to come unawares 
near to a partridge with young ones, she will give im- 
mediate warning to her brood to run and hide, and if 
the man pursues them, or comes near to them, she will 
approach to him and flutter as though she was unable 
to get out of his way, to entice the man to follow her, 
but will keep at such a distance from him that he can- 
not catch her ; aud in this manner she will lead the 
man away from her young in pursuit of herself, until 
he leaves them and her fear ceases, when she will re- 
turn to the brood, call them to her, and attend to them 
in her usual way. Other birds also have their ways 
and means of causing their young ones to run and hide 
for fear of an enemy, and to entice him away from the 
place where the young chickens are hid. All ani- 
mals will save and defend their young offspring to the 
utmost of their power, in which they generally make 
use of the best means they possess. 



FOURTH GENERATION. 

The fourth and a part of the fifth generations, de- 
scendants from four of the first settlers in the Peen- 
pack neighborhood, are now on the stage of action, and 
those who have remained in Deerpark now own nearly 
all the valuable land for agricultural purposes in it ; 
and, like their grandfathers, have generally stuck to 
the soil for their living. Yet a part of these two gen- 
erations are now in other pursuits of life, embracing a 
great part of all the occupations which are foUowed^in 
this part of our country. The former generally became 



152 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

transactors of business between the years 1810 and 
1830. These, and their coteinporaries in our country, 
are within reach of nearly all the acquisitions which 
have been mentioned, and can procure such portions 
thereof as their means and abilities will admit, and 
which furnishes them with avast amount of enjoyment 
of which their ancestry were destitute, and also are a 
source of many evils which they escaped by not hav- 
ing the means of their production. Now, in conse- 
quence of those changes, it requires more circumspec- 
tion now than in former times to travel Hfe*s journey, 
from the existence of many by-roads, the worst of 
which are sometimes most enticing ; and these have 
obscured our way through life, and created difficulties 
in selecting the best course for the enjoyment of. our 
additional acquisitions, without burdening ourselves 
with the evils which emanate from an erroneous 
choice.^ 

When men become enabled to have a great variety 
of food and drink it bcomes necessary to know which 
are of a healthy character and which are pernicious 
thereto, so as to enable them to make a choice for its 
preservation in cases where that becomes the object, 
in preference to risking future evil consequences. So 
also when men are enabled to have all the desirable 
qnjoyments of ease and comfortable dwellings, it is 
necessary for them to know how to occupy these with- 
out injuring their health, and also to have a knowledge 
of whatever has a tendency to promote or impair it. 
Much information relative thereto can be acquired 
from the writings of those who have studied and prac- 
ticed the art of healing and preserving health. 

Doctor Fowler of the city of New York has for some 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 153 

years published a montbly water cure journal, in 
which he has treated exteusively of the effects of water 
in curing diseases and preserving health, by using it 
in a proper manner to answer its different purposes. 
He has also treate 1 on the bad effects of some of 
the habits of the people of our country and 
the consequences thereof. He also from time to 
time published a variety of articles rehitive 
to the causes of diseases and means of avoiding 
the same, &c. Doctor Nichols and wife, Mary S. Gove 
Nichols, formerly of the city of New York and after- 
wards residents of Cincinnatti, also published a similar 
monthly journal for a few years. From such works 
much interesting matter for the benefit of mankind can 
be acquired, and more than people generally are will- 
ing to practice. 

The physicians, by much study and practice, have 
become very skillful in overcoming and curing dis- 
ease, and more dependence is now had on their ser- 
vices for prolonging life than on any other means for 
that purpose. 

Important as the preservation of health is to man- 
kind, few appear to be willing- to use means for pre- 
serving it, some of which are irksome and others coun- 
teract the cravings of nature. These latter differ widely 
in persons, and consequently are easier overcome by 
some than others. Many men of strong constitutions, 
in healthy employments, have little need of being 
strictly temperate, or to use extraordinary means to 
preserve health. 

The three first verses of the XXIII chapter of the 
Proverbs of Solomon are very applicable in respect to 



154 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

making choice of a great variety of food and drink 
such as Eulers of his time furnished. 

Now as man is composed of both body and a com- 
prehensive and intelligent mind, which latter is subject 
to pleasure and pain, happiness and misery, it is nec- 
essary to use our best means for the welfare of both ; 
and as a large field is opened by the acquisitions 
mentioned, for the enjoyment of the mind as well as 
of the body, and also a large field for speculative ob- 
jects, many of which are of a pernicious character, it 
becomes necessary to select such as will promote hap- 
piness and to shun those which are attended with 
dangerous consequences, both in respect to suffering 
corporeal punishment and the torments of a guilty con- 
science. 

The most perfect course of life creates the easiest 
journey, but a perfect guidance in all respects is be- 
yond the comprehension of man, and would not be 
fully pursued even if understood. Our country is tilled 
with preachers to expound the laws of God and dic- 
tate the walks of life, yet men err to such a degree 
from a perfect life as to make it necessary to have 
many codes of civil law, and a great number of civil 
officers versed therein to prevent imposition and sus- 
tain the rights of man. 

A perfect life of the mass of men in all respects 
would create the greatest happiness. It has been 
prophesied that a time will arrive when men will be- 
come blessed with a happy state of existence, when 
wars will cease and peace prevail. In respect of 
which, if we take a view of what has transpired in the 
world, it appears that mankind have made a great 
advance since the commencement of our historical 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 155 

revelations from a rude and barbarous state towards 
that of civilization, and from the numerous, cruel and 
terrible warfares of ancient times to a greater preva- 
lence of peace and much less cruelty in warfare. Yet 
the world of mankind still remains at a vast distance 
from such a happy state as might exist if all men were 
disposed to act for the welfare of all, and had discern- 
ment to use the best means for obtaining it. But we 
still remain fallible in both those respects, and if ever 
we are to have the enjoyment of such a happy state it 
must be yet far in advance, and it probably is best to 
progress slowly and become fitted by degrees for such 
a change. 



RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. 

I have understood that there were religious reading 
meetings in the Peenpack neighborhood before the 
Rev. Frj^enmoet commenced his ministerial services. 

When measures were first taken by the inhabitants 
along the Neversink and Delaware rivers, for a dis- 
tance of about 45 or 50 miles down the same, to pro- 
cure a preacher for the people throughout that distance, 
there was not a man in its vicinity qualified to preach 
the Gospel, and, in consequence of this district then 
being sparsely inhabited, the people united and formed 
four congregations, to procure the services of one 
preacher, and agreed with John Casparus Fryenmoet, 
a young man from Switzerland who had previously 
studied for the ministry, to furnish him with money to 
go to Amsterdam in Holland, finish his education and 
become ordained, after which he was to serve them as 



156 HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 

tlieir preacher. The sum they gave him for tliat pur- 
pose was =£125 12s. 6d., equal to $314.06. He went, 
obtained his education and became authorized to 
preach the gospel, returned and commenced to preach 
for the four congregations in June 1741 ; but no 
agreement had yet been made in relation to his salary 
and other matters which were necessary to be agreed 
on, and before any agreement was made Fryenmoet 
received a call from Rochester. It appears, however, 
that he declined that call, and an agreement was en- 
tered into between him and the church officers of 
Minisink and Mahackemeck congregations, the 7th of 
January, 1742, whereby it was stipulated that each of 
those congregations should pay Fryenmoet =£20, equal 
to $50. A like sum paid by each of the other congre- 
gations made the amount of his salary $200 ; besides 
this he was to have 100 skipple of oats for horse feed, 
of which each congregation was to furnish 25 skipple. 
In February, 1745, the four congregations agreed to 
pay each X17 10s. for the purpose of building a house 
for Fryenmoet. 

It appears from the church records that John Cas- 
parus Fryenmuth, born in Switzerland, with Eleanor 
Van Etten, born in Nytsfield, were married with a li- 
cense from Governor Morris, in New Jersey, by Jus- 
tice Abraham Van Camp, the 23d of July, 1742. The 
church records contain the rules and regulations of 
the church made at different times, which, in some re- 
spects, were different from those of the present time,- 
among which were the two following, to wit : Church 
Wardens before officiating had to bind themselves in 
writing to remain subject to the Classis of Amsterdam. 
Persons intending to be married had to make out a 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 157 

certificate of tlieir iDtended marriapje and deliver it to 
the minister, who for tliree successive Sundays, at the 
close of service, read the certificate and at the same 
time gave notice that if any legal objections to the 
marriage existed, they should be made in due time and 
place. 

This last continued to be practiced during Van Ben- 
schoten's services. 

These records are in the Holland Dutch tongue. It 
appears that Fryenmoet's services ended in 1755 
when his services became impracticable in conse- 
quence of the French war, whereby this frontier set- 
tlement became much exposed to Indian warfare, and 
he removed to Kinderhook, N. Y., where he preached 
for 21 years and where he died in 1778. He w^as re- 
presented as a man of short stature, handsome and 
eloquent. 

One hundred and ten communicant members were 
received into the church whilst Fryenmoet officiated, 
within the congregations of Minisink and Mahacke- 
meck, about 36 of whom resided in the present town of 
Deerpark. Of the latter the following from time to 
time alternately served as members of the Mahacke- 
meck consistory : 

Jacobus Swartwout Anthony Van Etten, 

Thomas Decker, Johannis Westbrook, 

Johannis Decker, Solomon Koykendall, 

Gerardus Van Inwegen, Josias Cole, 

Peter Gumaer, Benjamin Depuy, 

William Cole, Philip Swartwout, 

Peter Kuykendall. 

In the year 1760 the Rev. Thomas Romeyn com- 
menced his ministerial services for the congregations 



158 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

mentioned, and continued until the year 1772, during 
whicli time a general attendance was given to his 
preaching, and reading meetings were had and at- 
tended also on those Sundays when there was no 
preaching in this congregation. This practice contin- 
ued during the time of the successive ministers, until 
preaching was had every Sunday in our church. (Mr. 
Romeyn on leaving here settled in Canghnawaga, 
Montgomery County, N. Y., where after 21 years of 
ministerial labor he died in 1794.) 

Within the time of Romeyn's services a schism oc- 
curred in the Dutch church, in consequence of the 
subordinate state of the church to the Classsis of Am- 
sterdam, in Holland, in respect to ordaining ministers 
there, &c., which having become burdensome to many 
wdio had to go there to become authorized to preach 
the gospel, measures were taken to have a Classis es- 
tablished in this country for that purpose. This cre- 
ated two parties, one of which, termed Conferentie,was 
in favor of continuing according to former practice, 
and the other, termed Coetus, were advocates of a 
Classis formed in this country to examine and ordain 
men to preach the gospel. Of the former, Romeyn was 
a moderate adherent, probably in consequence of his 
ordination in Holland, yet the people of his congrega- 
tions generally attended to his preaching and were not 
as violent partisans as many people were in some other 
parts of our countiy ; and it is probable his services 
Avould have continued, if a few of the most influential 
ruling members of his church, who Avere of the Coetus 
party, had not projected means to end his services in 
the year mentioned. 

From this time, a term of thirteen years elapsed in 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 159 

which these congregations had no regular preacher, 
but probably had a few supplies before the Revolu- 
tionary War commenced, during its continuance, and 
after it ended. 

In the year 1785 the Rev. Elias Van Benschoten en- 
tered on his ministerial services for the three congrega- 
tions of Mahackemeck, Minisink and Walpack, in each 
of which he preached every third Sunday, in both the 
Dutch and English languages and generally performed 
half in each tongue ; and required of the young peo- 
ple as their duty, to commit to memory in the English 
tongue the Heidelberg catechism, in such portions as 
he directed to be answered at each time of his preach- 
ing in the congregation, either on the same Sunday or 
on one of the days of the same week, at which time he 
gave explanations of that portion of the catechism. He 
retired in 1795, * and removed to a farm or tract of 
land he had purchased, situated east of the Shawan- 
gunk mountain,in the northerly part of New Jersey, on 
which he made great improvements and granted it to 
Mr. Cooper, a nephew of his by marriage, subject to 
payment by installments, and his money he bestowed 
for educating youths for the ministry, <fec. ($17,000 
given to the General Synod of Reformed Dutch Church 
for this purpose in 1814.) 

Van Benschoten was a man well calculated for the 
rudeness of the time in which he officiated in those 
congregations. 

After Yan Benschoten's services were ended, a term 



* Mr. V. B. moved to his farm in the Clove near Deckertown, N. J., 
in 1792, where he preached to the church organized under his ministry. 
He likewise preached occasionally to the churches in this valley until 
1799. He died at the Clove in 1815. 



160 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

of about four years elapsed before another regular 
preacher served this congregation. In, or about the 
winter of 1803 and 1804, the Rev. John Demarest 
commenced his services for the congregations men- 
tioned and performed one-half of his preaching in 
the Dutch tongue, and the other half in English. He 
continued until about the year 1806. ^ After this a 
term of about ten or eleven years elapsed in which no 
regular preacher officiated in this congregation, but 
supplies were sometimes had. 

On the 25th of January, 1817, the Rev. Cornelius 
C. Elting was installed pastor of the two congregations, 
Mahackemeck and Minisink, and performed his ser- 
vices in the Euglish language. He died the 24th of 
October, 1843.t 

All religious services have since been performed in 
the English tongue in our congregation. Within the 
term of his services a new church was built in Port 
Jervis, after which the name of " Mahackemeck 
Church " was altered by an act of the Legislature, in 
1838, to that of " The Reformed Dutch Church of 
Deerpark." The materials of the old church were re- 
moved after the new one was finished, and the spot 
where the first and second churches had stood during 
a term of about one century, from the time the first 
was erected until the last was taken down, became 
vacant, and the ancient and latter occupants who for- 
merly repaired to it for the worship of their Creator 
now generally sleep in their graves. 

On the 29th of February, 1844, the Rev. George P. 

* Mr. Demarest died in New York city in 1837. 

t Mr. Elting is the only minister of this Church who has died during 
the pastorate of the Church. 



HISTORY OF DEEEPARK. 161 

Van Wyck was ordained and installed pastor of the 
Reformed Dutch Church of Deerpark, unconnected 
with the congregation of Minisiuk, and his services 
were generally had every Sunday in this church, which 
he continued until in May, 1852.* On February 22d, 
1853, the Rev. Hiram Slauson was installed pastor,and 
continued his services until in October 1857. t 

In the year 1853 the church edifice at Cuddeback- 
ville was built at a cost of $2,500, principally borne by 
the inhabitants of that place and its vicinity. A church 
was organized March 12th, 1854,(by a committee of the 
Classis of Orange) consisting of thirteen members, 
twelve of whom were received from the Reformed 
Dutch Church of Deerpark, and one from the Episco- 
pal Church of Middletown. The Rev. Henry Morris 
was installed as the first pastor of this church the 
third Tuesday of September, 1855. X 

On the first Sabbath in February, 1858, the Rev. 
Samuel W. Mills commenced his pastoral services for 
the Dutch Reformed Church at Port Jervis." 

As we now generally have preaching every Sabbath, 
our reading meetings have been discontinued. The 
exercises of those meetings were prayer by one of the 
communicant members, and singing before and after 
reading a sermon from a book of sermons. 

The greatest supporters of those meetings were Ben- 
jamin Depuy, Esq., witliin his time of action, and af- 
terwards Joel Whitlock. In the early part of Depuy's 

* Mr. Van Wyck is now (1889) living at Washington, D. C. 
t Mr. Slauson is still (1889) living at Whitehall, N. V. 

t Mr. Morris remained pastor of this Church until 1861 when he re 
moved to Port Jervis, and subsequently, in 1867, to Binghamton, N. Y., 
where he died, in 1881, at 78 years of ao^e. 

* Mr. Mills continued pastor until Nov. 1871. 



162 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

life lie, aud sometimes Jacob R. Dewitt, performed tlie 
reading in Dutch, but in the latter part of his life and 
afterwards it was done in the English language and 
continued to be done in that tongue. 

Since the construction of the Delaware and Hudson 
canal and the New York and Erie railroad this town 
has received an additional population, who have built 
up the large and flourishing village of Port Jervis. 
These are from different parts of our country and 
from different countries in Europe and are of different 
religious denominations. 

The greatest proportion of these are of English ori- 
gin, and some of them are the most opulent in it. This 
village, commenced about the year 1828, now contains 
six churches, all of which are generally occupied ever}^ 
Sunday for religious worship, to wit : A Dutch Re- 
formed as mentioned, and a Baptist, Methodist, Pres- 
byterian, Episcopalian and a Roman Catholic, 
(and now in 1890 a German Lutheran). The 
different opinions of men in religion and politics have 
alwaj'S had a tendency to create enmity ; but as men 
have become enlightened, those causes have gradually 
ceased to have such violent effects as in former times, 
especially in religion. The members of the different 
denominations in our town now harmonize in their 
business transactions, and their different opinions in 
religion do not effect their social intercourse in other 
respects. But in politics we must always expect to 
have times of great contention, if we continue to have 
the liberty of speaking our respective sentiments, for 
people will alwa^^s disagree, both honestly and dis- 
honestly in respect to certain matters which will, from 
time to time be introduced for legislative action and 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 163 

determination ; and our inability to judge correctly in 
relation to all the numerous matters which will con- 
tinually occur for such decision, together with many 
selfish views, will ahvays cause strife in our political 
affairs, and these will continue to have a great effect in 
opening the eyes of the people in relation to our po- 
litical matters. 

In religion it is probable that the different denomi- 
nations will generally continue to become freed from 
that enmity which formerly existed in consequence of 
their religious opinions, the folly of which is now ap- 
parent to the best informed part of mankind. The 
use of force and arms in former times to compel men 
to unite or keep united with certain religious sects, 
had a tendency to produce hyprocisy, for self preser- 
vation, but not to alter men's opinions. Convincing 
proofs are the only means to alter erroneous opinions, 
but the great evil of ancient times consisted in organ- 
izing men to answer selfish purposes by religious and 
political subjugation ; the most numerous and power- 
ful of each of these becoming united, created a power 
to tyranize over their opposers. 

The acts of men which have emanated from the 
influence of serving God have been directed in many 
different ways, some of which have been very erro- 
neous and contrary to the spirit of Christianity, al- 
though transacted by its professors. Such have been 
all the instigators of wars for selfish purposes, without 
a just cause, and all unjust impositions for whatever 
objects. 

Within the present century much has been done to 
enlighten mankind and improve their condition, and 
we are under great obligations of gratitude to all the 



164 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

scientific men of our country for the vast improve- 
ment and discoveries tliey have made within my own 
time of life, most of which has been done by descen- 
dants of English origin, whose ancestors generally 
came into this country poor, to enjoy liberty in the 
wilds of the Eastern states, where they had to suffer 
the hardships of procuring a livelihood in a wilderness 
country, among the hazards of being exterminated by 
the numerous Indians who inhabited it. Now, not- 
withstanding their privations and all the hazards which 
attended their situations, they persevered, improved 
the country wherever they settled, defended themselvei 
against Indian hostilities, and, as soon as practicable, 
introduced rehgious worship, literature and the study 
of the arts, and sciences, and became the most enlight- 
ened people in our country. 

Many of their descendants have emigrated into the 
different States of the Union, and, wherever they have 
located, they have generall}' introduced religion, liter- 
ture, and the study of the arts and sciences. They 
occupy the greatest part of the most important stations 
of life in our country, and we are indebted to them for 
a vast amount of improvements, and for many manu- 
facturing establishments in different parts of our coun- 
try. Ill religion they do not all unite. Their spirit of 
liberty generally dictates the individuals to join such 
Christian denomination as they respectively prefer, in 
consequence of which they have become divided gen- 
erally among the different Christian denominations' in 
our countr}^ These different opinions in religious 
sentiments generally create no enmity between the 
most enlightened professors, wdio so differ in opinion 
where no apprehensions of evil consequences exist, 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 165 

but indications of these have not become wholly ex- 
tinguished, and may or may not prove an injury to the 
welfare of our country. 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

For about 60 or 70 years the inhabitants of that 
part of tlie present town of Deerpark, which formerly 
was in the town of Mamakating in Ulster County, had 
no nearer Justice of the Peace than in Rochester, in 
the same County, which was about 35 or 40 miles dis- 
tant from the Peenpack neighborhood ; and the ser- 
vices of that officer were unnecessary for the inhabi- 
tants of that neighborhood du.iing that time, in which 
they had the honesty and prudence to adjust all mat- 
ters relating to their mutual dealings. And the inhab- 
itants of the lower neighborhood, who were in the 
County of Orange, and had settled there about 20 
years after the settlement was made at Peenpack, must 
have resided there about 40 or 50 years before any 
Justice officiated in that neighborhood. 

I presume that Jacobus (James) Yau Auken was the 
first Justice of the Peace in the present town of Deer- 
park, and that he received his office from the authori- 
ties of the State of New Jersey before the line between 
the States became settled. He resided in the lower 
neighborhood. It was said that he was entirely illit- 
erate, and that the wife of his son Daniel Van Auken, 
Leah Kittle, had been educated and could read and 
write, and did the same for her father-in-law when it 



166 HISTORY OP DEERPARK. 

became necessary for transacting his official business, 
in consequence of winch she received the name of 
Justice in his time of life. 

Benjamin Depuy and Philip Swartwout, Esquires, 
officiated as Justices of the Peace for the County of 
Ulster before the Revolutionarj^ War commenced, and 
Anthony Yan Etten and Solomon Kuykendall,Esquires, 
officiated as Justices of the Peace for the County of 
Orange, also before the commencement of the war, how 
long previous thereto I cannot determine, but think 
they must have come into office after the F.rench war 
ended and before the year 1770. After the decease of 
Swartwout, Van Auken and Yan Etfcen,wliich occurred, 
as has been mentioned, in the time of the war, Har- 
manus Yan Inwegen became a Justice of the Peace of 
the County of Ulster and Levi Yan Etten of. Orange 
County. The former was a resident of the old town of 
Mamakating, and the latter of the former town of iMin- 
isink. Afterwards Peter G. Cuddeback became a Jus- 
tice of the Peace of Ulster County, and officiated until 
he removed to Cayuga County. 

After this time several individuals held the office in 
succession for the County of Orange, which became so 
altered, together with an alteration of the towns, as to 
include the present town of Deerpark in which .Cudde- 
back resided. When the first and second churches of 
Mahackemeck congregation were built, a bench with a 
roof over it was made in each of those churches for a 
seat of such magistrates in time of divine service.^' 
When those civil officers were first introduced into this 
part of our country they were more highly esteemed 

* This was very common in the Dutch Churches in this country at 
that time. 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 167 

than at present, tlioiigh it did not require as good 
abilities and as inncli law knowledge to discharge their 
duties honorably in former times as at present, in con- 
sequence of the great increase of their business and a 
more general diffusion of law knowledge, also by hav- 
ing become familiarized among the people in a much 
greater degree than formerly. 

The descendants of the first settlers in the two 
neighborhoods mentioned have generally settled all 
their mutual dealings without the process of law,which 
has so continued to the present time : and before the 
Revolution the Justices must have had only a mere 
trifle of business. After the war ended law prosecu- 
tions and trials began, and their increase a few years 
thereafter made a great addition of business for the 
resident Justices in the towns mentioned, which rap- 
idly augmented until the County of Sullivan was 
formed and became established out of a part of the old 
County of Ulster, and a part of the latter added to the 
old County of Orange*, whicli transferred a great 
amount of law business from the present County of 
Ulster into the County of Sullivan. 

After the Reuolutionary War, the large forests of 
wild lands then in Ulster County contained a great 
amount of valuable pine, o.di and hemlock timber, 
both near the Delaware river and for some 
miles distant from it. This valuable property became 
an object of enterprise for people, to get and con- 
vey to market, first generally in the form of logs. 
Few owners of the land were in this part of 
the country, wdiich gave people the opportunity to 
get it where they saw fit, but as the business extended 
owners were found and many people became engaged 



168 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

in manufacturing the timber into boards, scantling,&c., 
and into hewed timber, staves and shingles for mar- 
ket. Among these quite a great proportion of the 
residents in the former and present towns of Deerpark 
engaged, in which some did a small business, others 
on a medium scale, and some to a very -great extent. 
This, with few exceptions, was done on a credit sys- 
tem, by running in debt to merchants and farmers for 
the necessary supplies the individuals wanted for their 
business, which generally was made payable every en- 
suing spring and fall, at which time the lumber was 
run down the river to market. In progressing in this 
manner many disappointments occurred which caused 
failures in making payments according to agreements, 
in consequence of disasters on the river, unsteady 
prices of lumber and of the produce necessary for that 
business, wages, &g., and many other causes of failures 
contributed to make business for justices and con- 
stables of the old County of Ulster, who resided in the 
former town of Mamakating. .As early as 1792 when I 
was constable and a resident of that town, I had to 
travel several times a distance of between 15 and 40 
miles to serve processes for recovery of debts from 
persons who resided along the river between Pond 
Eddy and Cochecton, and who were in poor circum- 
stances to pay debts. These lumbered under great 
disadvantages in getting round timber from the moun- 
tains bordering on the river, which business they had 
commenced after the war ended. 

After the war terminated, boards and other sawed 
timber were much wanted for building purposes within 
the present town of Deerpark, where the enemy had 
burned the buildings of the inhabitants, and these 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 169 

materials were not manufactured in this vicinity at 
that time. It became necessary to bnild saw mills to 
furnish those articles, and three men, Capt. Abraham 
Cuddeback, Benjamin Cuddeback and Capt. Abraham 
Westfall, built a saw mill on a brook at that time 
termed Bush-kill, at or near the present tanning estab- 
lishment of Mr. O. B. Wheeler, near the bridge across 
the Neversink river on the Mount Hope and Lumber- 
land turnpike ; and three other men, Benjamin Depuy, 
Esq., Elias Gumaer and Samuel Depuy, built a saw 
mill on the present premises of Abraham Cuddeback, 
Esq., on the same brook on which his present saw mill 
stands. 

Near the Bush -kill saw mill at that time was much 
pine timber, and that mill continued to do considera- 
ble business for several years, and the same, and a few 
other mills Avest of it, manufactured the greatest part 
of the boards formerly used for the buildings in Orange 
County, and the shingles for roofing the same were 
generally made in the vicinity of those mills. All of 
which, during a certain period of time, made a great 
business, and some addition to that of our Justice's 
courts originated from it. 

A great trading intercourse generally creates many 
causes of contention and fills our courts with a great 
amount of business, all of which has its bad and good 
eff'ects, and while some bear the burdens of contention 
others receive the benefit of transacting the necessary 
business for adjusting matters of dispute. All the 
consequences resulting from such an intercourse of 
mankind, have a tendency to enlighten them, and, 
according to the old saying " It's an ill wind that 
blows nobody any good." 



ANTERIOR PRICES OF LIVE STOCK, GRAIN 

AND OTHER FARMERS' PRODUCE, 

WAGES, &C. 

For many years tlie prices of those productions, 
wages, &c., were about stationary. At what time or 
times these were established is uncertain, but I pre- 
sume it must have been as early as 1740, when the 
same became regulated according to the discretion of 
the people throughout this valley or by the Esopus 
merchant, and continued until about the year 1790. 
The farmers generally paid mechanics and laborers 
with the produce of their farms, and the latter paid 
what they bought of the former in labor, and very 
little money was in circulation among them. 



CURRENCY AND MEASURES. 

Previous to the Revolutionary War, and for a few 
years after it ended, the currency in circulation here 
was that of the Colony of New York, afterwards termed 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 171 

State of New York, which was calculated in pounds, 
shillings, pence and farthings. 

1 pound was 20 shillings $2.50 

1 shilling was 12 pence ..,..., .12^ 

1 penny was 4 farthings 01 1-25 

The grain measure was a skipple, and held 3 pecks. 
The cloth measure was an ell, f of a yard long. 

For brevity, the prices annexed to the following ar- 
ticles, wages, &c., is in our present currency, and the 
measures are those now in use. 

LIVE STOCK. 

Horses, from about. . .^. $20.00 to $50.00 

Cows, " " . . .*. 7.50 to 12.50 

Sheep, " " 1.00 to 1.50 

GRAIN. 

Wheat, per bushel $0.75 

Eye, per bushel 50 

Corn, per bushel 50 

Buckwheat, per bushel 31 

MEAT. 

Beef, per cwt $2.50 

Pork, per cwt 4.00 

CLOTHS. 

For man's every day wear linen, unbleached, per 

yard $0.44 

For man's every day wear linen, bleached, per 

yard • .50 

Finer qualities for Sunday wear at higher prices, 

linsey-woolsey, fulled and colored 1.00 



172 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

Unfulled plain colored linsey-woolsey for woman's 

wear : 75 

These cloths were all woven five-quarters of a yard 
wide. 

FLAX. 

Unhatcheled, per lb .$0.09 

Tow, per lb 06 

WAGES. 

For labor on a farm, per year, from. . . $50.00 to $75.00 
For labor on a farm, per month, from.. 5.00 to 7.50 
For labor on a farm, per day, except 

in harvest and haying, from 25 to .37^ 

Per day for cradling grain $0.62^ 

Per day for mowing grass 50 

Baking and binding after a cradler 62^ 

Raking only after a cradler 25 

Binding after a cradler ^ . .37 J 

Cutting timber and splitting it into rails, per 

hundred 37^ 

Splitting rails, per hundred 18f 

Crackling or breaking flax per hundred handfulls. .12^ 

Swingling flax per lb. about 03 

Spinning it for common wear per lb. (women's 

work) 121 

Weaving linen for every day wear per yard about. .04 
Linsey-AVoolsey per yard about • 07 

carpenter's work. 

Per day from $0.50 to $0.72 

For making the woodwork of a wagon $25.00 

Of a lumber sleigh 1.50 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 173 

Of a plow 1.00 

Of a faiming mill 12.50 

mason's work. 
Per day from $0.50 to $0.75 

The sums paid for the mason and carpenter's work 
of the dwelling house of Peter Gumaer, done about the 
year 1753, will show how cheap those mechanics worked 
at that time. 

The house was 45 by 40 feet on the ground, with a 
cellar under the same, divided into four cellar rooms 
and four dwelling rooms. The walls were of stone, 
masoned with clay mortar and were about two feet 
thick, pointed outside of the house and inside of the 
cellar rooms with lime and sand mortar, and plastered 
inside of the rooms and chamber with mortar of lime, 
&c. The mason work of this house was done by three 
masons, by the job, for <£30, equal to $75 ; and the 
carpenter's work was also done by the job, by a Mr. 
Wells, for the like sum of £30, equal to $75. 

To show how cheap these mechanics worked, I have 
thought proper to give a further description of this 
house, being as follows, to wit : The two side walls 
were about 20 feet high from the bottom of the cellar 
to the plates, and the two end walls were about 28 feet 
high. The two walls, Avhicli divided the cellar and 
dwelling house each into four apartments, were about 
16 feet high from the bottom of the cellar to the cham- 
ber floor. The two chimneys, with the supporting 
walls in the cellar and forming the fire-places, were 
about 40 feet high from the bottom of the cellar to 
their tops,and were each about 10 x 6 feet square above 
. the upper floor, from which they were tapering towards 



174 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

the top of tlie roof, and above it were about 4 or 5 feet 
square. 

The carpenter's work consisted of hewing, fitting and 
laying the cellar beams, which were about one foot 
square, and reached from the outside to the inside 
walls, also hewing, planing and hiying the beams of 
the upper floor, which were of pitcii pine timber and 
about 14 X 10 inches square, also hewing and planing 
the plates on which the roof rested, also hewing the 
rafters, which were about 8x6 inches square at the 
lower ends and about 5 inches square at the top end 
and those on the sides were about 32 feet long, and 
those on the two other sides, or ends, were about 26 
feet long, and each pair of the long rafters contained 
a girth of about 25 feet long and about 8x6 inches 
square. The lath on which the shingles were nailed 
were of split timber, hewed IJ inch thick and about 5 
inches wide, the shingles were of white pine timber 3 
feet long and 1 inch thick at the butt end, shaved to 
near an edge at the other end ; the lower and upper 
floors were of pitch pine boards, IJ inch thick planed 
on the side within the rooms. 

The house contained 7 inside panel doors, four out- 
side framed doors, and four cellar batten doors, five 
windows, which contained each 24 panes of glass, and 
panel window shutters to each window, four small 
windows above the outside doors and eight small 
chamber and cellar windows, and a large closet each 
side of one of the fire places. These two jobs were 
paid in money, which was of much more value at that 
time than at present. 

Few country dwelling houses contain as great a 
weight of materials as were put into this building. It 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 175 

lasted until tlie year 1823, and, witli a little repairing 
and a new roof, might have stood and been a good 
house until the present time. It contained all its first 
materials except a small repair of the floors before 
each fire place, and rebuilding the east wall, from 
which the pointing had been washed by northeast 
storms of rain and caused it to fall. The lower and 
upper floors, and the two end roofs, were yet water 
tight when the house was taken down. The roofs on 
the north and south sides had become leaky, and more 
on the north than south side. The two end roofs were 
very steep, and those on the sides were somewhat 
steeper than roofs of the present time. 

BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS OF OUR ANCES- 
TORS. 

As there has been a great change in the business 
transactions of people in this part of the country gen- 
erally within the last half century, I have thought 
proper to give a more particular statement in relation 
to that of the inhabitants formerly of our present town, 
than what has been mentioned in the preceding part 
of this work. 

Commencing wdth the ending and beginning of the 
year, I will in the first instance narrate the manner in 
which Christmas and New Year's days were kept. 

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR'S. 

The day preceding Christmas, preparations were 
made to enjoy some good diets on that and the next 
succeeding day, by baking cakes, boiling doughnuts, 
&c., on which to feast, especially the second Christmas 



176 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

da}^ when neiglibors visited each other and partook of 
the good victuals previously and this day provided. 
Formerly two days were kept as Christmas, and two 
days as New Year's throughout our valley. The first 
Christmas day was kept holy and reverential as Sun- 
day, and the second as mentioned, on the evening of 
which the young people generally had a dance. The 
day previous to New Year's, the same preparations 
were made for both Noav Year's days, and early in the 
morning of the first day, at or before break of day, a 
few individuals would be out in one part of the neigh- 
borhood and salute a near neighbor with tlie firing of 
guns by his door, which awakening the inmates they 
speedily arose out of their beds, and, on meeting their 
visitors, the}^ mutually greeted each other with the 
wish of a Happ3' New Year, after which a treat of 
cider was given and sometime^ other liquor after it 
became used, and some cakes, doughnuts and apples 
were distributed among them. Here they were joined 
by one or a few of this family and proceeded to the 
next neighbor, where the same routine was gone 
through and generally one or a few individuals were 
added at each house, and by this means quite a com- 
pany was formed by passing through the neighbor- 
hood. In my time these proceedings began to be 
disapproved, and gradually ceased until they became 
abandoned. In all other respects,the first and second 
New Year's days were kept in the same manner as the 
second Christmas day. 

After these festivities were past, the people resumed 
their business, which was very urgent at this time of 
the year, in which, before my time, it was said there 
generally was good sleighing and they had to do a 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 177 

great amount of teaming in the winter season while 
sleighing continued, to get their wheat to market, their 
fire wood, post and rail timber drawn, and much other 
work which teams had to perform. Wheat, in the first 
instance, had to be taken between 50 and 60 miles 
distance from our present town to market, afterwards 
between 40 and 50 miles. 

As the days are short in winter, the people before 
my time occupied a part of the night after dark in the 
evening and in the morning before daylight,for thresh- 
ing and cleaning wheat, and also for taking it to mar- 
ket. The great amount of fire wood, post and rail 
timber, which had to be provided in the winter season, 
also made much winter work. After sleighing ended, 
post and rail timber had to be split, the posts holed 
and rails sharpened, and, as soon as the frost was out 
of the ground, new fences were made of these and the 
old fences were repaired. In 1770 and afterwards, a 
great amount of fuel and fencing timber was used in 
consequence of the large fires farmers kept up in their 
sitting rooms and kitchens, the smallness and scat- 
tered situation to which farms ha 1 become reduced at 
that time, and the necessity of dividing them into small 
lots for pasturing purposes. 

In March and April, the flax which had not been 
previously dressed, was in these months all crackled 
and swingled, rope yarn spun, and ropes made for 
halters, traces, lines and other uses. Each farmer in 
these months prepared his hides for tanning, procured 
white oak bark,and laid down the hides, together with 
the bark and water, in troughs,to be tanned during the 
warm season. The linen for summer wear was princi- 
pally woven in these months by the men, the manure 



178 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

drawn from the barnyards and stables, and ilax seed 
and oats sowed. 

In May, the corn-ground was ploughed and planted, 
and ploughing for buckwheat was done for the first 
time. 

In June,tlie corn was hoed twice, for which it was 
prepared by plowing each time between the rows one 
way, so that much had to be done with the hoe, and 
the ploughing for summer fallow was also commenced, 
and at an early day of the settlement sometimes fin- 
ished in this month. 

In July the harvesting aud gathering of winter 
grain and oats, and the pulling of flax was all done. 

In August, after meadows were made, the grass was 
cut and gathered for fodder, flax taken up aud brought 
into barns, and a second ploughing for wheat was 
principally done in this month. (It was customary 
with the ancient people to plough three times for 
wheat and twice for rye). 

In September the plowing for seed and sowing win- 
ter grain was commenced, and was continued during 
the month of October and beginning of November. 
Cider was from time to time made during these three 
months. The topping of corn, by cutting off the stalks 
above the ears for iodder,was done in September until 
the time of the Revolutionary War, after which this 
practice was abandoned and the cutting up of corn 
near the ground and setting it up in small sliocks be- 
came a general practice, in which, improvements in 
performing the work, and time and manner of doing 
the same, have from time to time been made. Until 
the time of the Revolutionary War, and during that 
war, the ears of corn on the stalks, standing out in the 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 179 

field after becoming dry, were pulled from the stalks 
and thrown into small heaps between the rows, from 
which they were taken with a wagon into the barn 
where they were husked, sometimes by means of one 
or more husking frolics, but more generally by the 
family only. In these months and beginning of De- 
cember, flax was rotted, and some of it dressed for 
winter spinning, and rope yarn was spun, and ropes 
made for cow-ropes, halters, traces, lines and other 
purposes for winter use. 

In November, winter apples, and the few potatoes, 
turnips and other roots raised in those times, were 
brought into the cellar ; and the killing and putting 
up of pork and beef was done in the latter part of this 
month and beginning of December. The manufactur- 
ing of leather, which each farmer had tanned during 
the season, was done at this time and made into shoes, 
(generally by a member of the family), also the weav- 
ing of linsey-woolsey and woolen check for winter 
wear, and the dressing of some flax for winter spin- 
ning. In November,each farmer generally took a load 
of wheat and flax seed to market, for procuring salt, 
pepper, iron and other articles. 

The women, as well as the men, had also to perform 
a great amount of labor. Besides their ordinary 
housework, they had to spin the yarn for all their 
clothing, hatched their flax, and card their wool, 
bleach all their linen ior shirts and some other uses, 
make all the wearing apparel of both men and women, 
and did all the knitting of stockings and mittens,which 
amounted to more than double the knitting now done 
for a family, which had become necessary in conse- 
quence of the fashion of men in former times wearing 



180 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

short breeches, which also made it necessary for them 
to wear over stockings. 

All those necessary occupations made a great 
amount of business for our ancestors, .and furnished 
them with a very plentiful supply of the necessaries of 
life. They had very little help besides that of a few 
slaves, which generally did not amount to more than 
a man and a woman slave to a family, exclusive of 
children and old people not able to do much. The 
inhabitants were generally farmers, and few laborers 
could be obtained by them. 



CHAEACTERISTICS. 

The characteristics of each individual by a marriage 
union becoming changed in their children, form char- 
acters differing, in some degree, from those of each 
parentjWhich, being continued from generation to gen- 
eration, gradually extinguish those of the original 
parents ; but to w^hat extent of time or how many 
generations would have to succeed each other before 
these would all become extinguished the writer cannot 
determine. By bringing into calculation the first 
pioneers as the first generation,the sixth, and a part of 
the fifth and seventh, are now, in 1861, on the stage of 
action. In many individuals of the fifth and sixth 
generations are 3'et remains of the characteristics of 
their respective, most anterior parentage. These are 
more prominent in some of the descendants than in 
others, and also have been inherited in a greater de- 
gree in some families than in others, and certain pre- 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 181 

dominating characteristics of an anterior ancestor have 
been the most prevalent in the line of their descent. 



CHAEACTERS OF SOME OF THE FIRST SET- 
TLERS. 

Very little is now known respecting the seven first 
pioneers. I imagine that they had all been in com- 
fortable circumstances of life,and had become reduced 
so that they were in want of means for a livelihood, 
and became associated to obtain possession of some 
good land which they were not able to purchase in the 
settled-part of the country, and had to venture to emi- 
grate into its wilds which remained unsettled by white 
people but was inhabited by Indians, who at that 
time were thought to be a more savage and cruel peo- 
ple than what they in reality were. 

The three Sw^artwouts, we have reason to presume, 
were best calculated for this enterprise, and that their 
companions must have had much reliance on them for 
protection. Not only were they possessed of superior 
capacities in respect of body and spirit for adventurous 
undertakings, but also were a very social, jocose, hum- 
orous and witty people, well calculated to become 
easily familiarized with strangers and court friendship, 
which first qualities were necessary to intimidate the 
Indians, and the latter to court and maintain friend- 
ship with them. They were an easy people and made 
no great exertions to acquire property by means of 
hard labor, but provided for a good living. Some of 



182 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

these characteristics have become much changed in 
the descendants of those who remained in this vicinity, 
and some of them have been inherited to the present 
time. The Swartwout character became much changed 
by the union of Major Swartwout with the daughter of 
the first Peter Gumaer, whose only surviving son, 
PhiHp Swartwout, became the greatest business man 
of his time in this neighborhood. He also was more 
sedate and economical than his ancestors ; in other 
respects he had inherited the Swartwout character. A 
great degree of these existed in the two succeeding 
generations, and have not become extinguished in the 
sixth. 

Caudebec and Guimar, reduced from a state of afflu- 
ence to that of indigence, differed widely to meet such 
a change and undertake the task of manual labor for 
a living which became necessary after they landed in 
this country, and was undertaken by them, but, as they 
were not able to perform as much as men habituated 
to it, they received only low wages. Caudebec, being 
dissatisfied, told Guimar that he would not work for 
such low wages ; Guimar replied that they had to do 
something for a living,and, as they could not do much, 
tliey could not expect much, and that Avhile they la- 
bored they had tlieir living, if no more. At the insti- 
gation of Caudebec, they went from the State in which 
they first landed into the State of New York, and he, 
having been habituated to a trading business, became 
introduced into the family of Benjamin Provost, who 
also were in such business, and was married to one of 
his daughters. Guimar, in the meantime, undertook 
the busiaess of cleaning flax by the pound, for which 
he received wages according to what he did, and also 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 183 

became married to a daugbter (as lias been supposed) 
of a Deyo. 

After these two individuals became settled in our 
present town, the same difference continued to exist in 
relation to their business transactions. Guimar, with 
the help of his daughters, two slaves he bought or had 
of his father-in-law, and one son, (his youngest child), 
became the greatest farmer in this town. He was very 
persevering in his. business transactions, and severe to 
compel his slaves, also his daughters and son, to do 
all the labor they could perform. The daughters, five 
in number, although of delicate constitutions, did all 
the housework and manufacturing of all their clothing, 
also a part of the work on the farm and taking wheat 
to market. He, himself, dressed all his flax, to which 
business he had become habituated before he settled 
on his farm, which was about all the farmer's work he 
could do. He also was severe to enforce the moral 
and religious duties of his children. His descendants 
have, from generation to generation, very generally 
inherited his persevering business character to the 
present time ; in other respects many of his character- 
istics have become extinguished. 

Caudebec was the reverse of Guimar in respect to 
his business transactions, and more tender towards his 
children. He had much of a speculative disposition, 
and aimed at getting a living by easier means than 
that of steady manual labor, and this probably was the 
view of the seven first settlers and cause of their emi- 
gration to get possession of land where wild animals, 
fowls and fishes abounded, which, together with the 
cultivation of small portions of such land, would fur- 
nish means for an easy life and a better living, in re- 
spect of eatables, than what we can now enjoy. 



184 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

After tliose individuals became located in our pres- 
ent town, it was necessary for tliem to procure a title 
for the land tliey wanted to occupy, and it appears 
that they selected Caudebec, as the most proper per- 
son, to send to the Governor and procure a patent for 
as many acres of land as would cover what they wanted 
to occupy. 

After one of the Swartwouts, Caudebec and Gui- 
mar became owners of the patent right, they had to 
contend for the possession of a great part of the land 
they claimed and had in their possession, and it was 
necessary for them to devise means to counteract those 
who wanted to dispossess them. Caudebec, who was 
of a contemplative mind, must have been well calcu- 
lated to assist in forming plans for that purpose, and I 
have understood that he, and certain individuals of his 
own family, officiated in some of those which were very 
important. 

After his daughters became married, he devised 
means for their livelihood, by inducing the husbands 
of tliree of them, Abraham Louw, Evert Hornbeck and 
Harmanus Yan Gordon, to locate on the east side of 
the Delaware river, in the State of New Jersey, oppo- 
site Shipikunk Island ; and also his son James and 
two of his brothers-in-law to do the same, and each of 
them take possession of as much land on the island as 
was necessary for a livelihood for his respective family. 
This island was a body of very good river land, and 
the first possessor of any part of it had a right to hold 
what he had in possession without paying for it. It 
was termed King's land, and to remain unsold by his 
Majesty or Government. Other islands in that river 
were in the same situation, and the husband of another 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 185 

of his claiigLters, Westfall, located himself on the same 
side of the river, opposite Minisink Island, and took 
possession of a part of that island. 

From all of which we mnst infer that he was a man 
well calculated to overcome difficulties, and had a pen- 
etrating mind. He was characterized as a sensible 
man. He had been educated, but to what extent is not 
known. He had told his family that he had been a 
great reader before he left his country, and that he 
regretted that his children did not have the opportun- 
ity to become educated. He instructed them in moral 
and religious duties, and was very tenacious of their 
characters. At a certain time two of his daughters 
told him that certain persons had made a scandalous 
report respecting them. He asked if it was true what 
they had said. They replied no, it was all lies. 
" Well," said he, " maintain good characters and let 
them talk ; they will get ashamed of their lies." 

His character, in relation to what has been men- 
tioned respecting his mental ability, has been inherited 
from generation to generation by some of his descend- 
ants (who remained in this town) to the present time. 
The bodily capacities of li:s sons, in respect of size, 
strength and agility, I consider to have been inherited 
from his wife, which, although much reduced from that 
of those ancients, is still superior in some of the de- 
scendants of the present time to that of the generality 
of men. Some of those ancients, in our neighborhood, 
were a very talkative people and uncommonly fond of 
conversation, in which they embraced a great variety 
of topics in relation to what had transpired in this 
valley for a distance of sixtj^ or seventy miles, and in- 



186 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

eluded a great many remarks in relation to the con- 
duct of the people of those times and much argumen- 
tation on different subjects. I have sat many a long 
winter evening, and many an hour in the daytime, to 
hear the conversations and arguments of a few of the 
individuals of the second generation. These propen- 
sities, which Avere inherent in this family, have become 
much changed in their descendants of the present 
time. Many of these communications, remarks and 
arguments were entertaining and instructive, and had 
a tendency to induce good morality, of which they 
possessed more in principle than in language. I will 
here introduce one good remark, which one of them 
made in the presence of myself and a few others,which 
was that, " The first of anything from which trouble 
accrued was the cause of all the evil consequences 
which originated from the same." 

In bodily size, strength and agility, there was a 
great similarity between the Swartwouts and Cudde- 
backs, but those I have known differed in visage. It 
Avas said that some of the ancients were superior in 
personal beauty and natural mental abilities to their 
descendants. This information I have had from dif- 
ferent sources. The first time I saAv Nathaniel Owen, 
who kept a store and tavern many years ago, about 
two miles east of the Wallkill, on the road to New 
Windsor and Newburgh, he told me that he had been 
acquainted with the old people in our two neighbor- 
hoods, and that 'he liad never been in a place where 
there Avas so great a proportion of portly, handsome 
men as Avere in those neighborhoods, Avhich he con- 
sidered as remarkable for such a by-place as this was 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 187 

at that time. He named Major Swartwout, the second 
Peter Gumaer, William Cucldeback, Joliannis (John) 
Westbrook and the first Peter Knykendall as the most 
superior in those respects, and that their children 
generally were inferior to them, not only in bodily 
capacity, but also in natural mental ability. The 
ancient Swartwouts, Cuddebacks and Gumaers had 
black, curly hair and generally blue eyes and fair skin. 
The first Van In vvegen had red hair, his son Gerardus 
had black, curly hair and his children had black hair. 

Harmanus Van In^yegen's character has been repre- 
sented in this work as a bold and fearless man, which 
is about all that is now known respecting him. This 
was well known by Anthony Swartwout, Jacob Cudde- 
back and the first Peter Gumaer^ before they procured 
him to locate in their little neighborhood for their as- 
sistance in defending the premises they claimed. His 
co-operation with them was important for all these 
four individuals, for he, as well as the others had be- 
come interested therein by having a portion of the land 
granted to him by the others, aiicl as the saying is 
" He became a great spoke in the wheel" to maintain 
their possessions. He was always honored by his 
companions for his braver}^ and help in their struggles. 
He and they continued to live near neighbors in 
friendship and harmony until death ended their lives. 

Van Inwegen had only one son (Gerardus) and one 
daughter (Jane). Gerardus lived a very near neigh- 
bor to my father, and I was familiarly acquainted with 
him in his old age for several years previous to his 
death. I did also sometimes see his sister ; they were 
both small and very lean in flesh during the time I 



188 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

knew them, and tlieir skin was mucli wrinkled, (which 
latter denoted they had been more fleshy in earlier 
life) they appeared to be more healthy and were smart 
for their ages. Gerardas retained his health until old 
age ended his life, and after his death it was said of 
him that he died a natural death, of old age, without 
sickness. 

The characteristics of the father and son of this 
family have not been generally inherited by the child- 
ren and grand-children. It has been said that Corne- 
lius Yan Inwegen, eTr., father of Moses Van Inwegen, 
resembled and took more after his great-grandfather, 
Harmanus Van Inwegen, than any other individual of 
all his descendants. Moses, his son, has some resem- 
blance to his father, but I consider him to take more 
after the ancient DeWitt family than tliatof any other. 
There were certain traits of character which some of 
the children and grand-children of Gerard us inherited 
from him, but generally they took more after other 
families from whom they were also descendants. 

Many of the ancient characteristics of both the 
Svvartwouts and Cuddebacks still remain in their de- 
scendants, but I consider James D. Swartwout as 
possessing those of the ancient Swartwout family in a 
superior degree ; CoL Peter Cuddeback as having the 
greatest resemblance to the ancient Cuddeback family; 
Abraham Cuddeback, son of Col. William A. Cudde- 
back, when in prime of life, appeared to have more of 
the character of his grandfather, Capt. Cuddeback, 
than any other of the descendants of the latter; James 
Devens, Esq., grandson of the second Peter Gumaer, 
had some resemblance of his grandfather. But all 
these differed in some respects from the originals. 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 189 

Benjamin Hornbeck, a grandson of Capt. Cuddeback, 
had much of the penetrating mind of his grandfather. 



EMIGKATION FROM THIS TOWN. 

Enumeration of families who were in this town dur- 
ing the time of the Kevolutionary War, and of those 
who removed out of it after the war ended, and of 
those who now, in 1861, remain in it of those descend- 
ants of those ancients, including marriage connections. 

First of those of the upper or Peenpack neighbor- 
hood, two of whom, DeWitt and Terwilliger, were no 
descendants of the first four families. 

The names of the heads of those families were the 
following, to wit : 

Capt. Jacob R. DeWitt, Capt. Abraham Cuddeback, 
Benjamin Depuy, Esq., Benjamin Cuddeback, 
Abraham Cuddeback, Jacob D. Gumaer, 
Elias Gumaer, Harmauus Yan Inwegen,Esq., 

Cornelius Van luwegen, Philip Swartwout, Esq., 
John Wallace, Peter Gumaer, 

Matthew Terwilliger, Ezekiel Gumaer, 
Capt. Abraham Westfall. 
Of these, their children, grand-children, and great- 
grand-children who had formed marriage connections, 
and together with these had become families, the fol- 
lowing number have, from time to time, removed from 
this neighborhood, to wit : 



190 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 



No. 


3f 


family. 










CfQ 










i-S 


i o^ 


o 


o^ 


O 


go 


M« 


h-«^ 


h-i 


H-^s 


jUj i-h. 








CTQ 
P 


great- 
-cliildren. 



Name. 



Jacob R. De Witt 8 4 

Benjamin Depuy 7 2 

Abraham Cuddeback 3 1 

Elias Gumaer 7 

Cornelius Van Inwegen 6 3 2 

Jolm Wallace 3 

Matthew Terwilliger 4 4 

Capt. Cuddeback 4 8 5 

Benjamin Cuddeback 4 14 

Jacob D. Gumaer 6 1 2 

Harmanus Van Inwegen 3 15 

Philip Swartwout 3 3 

Peter Gumaer 3 1 

Ezekial Gumaer 1 

Abraham Westfall... 10 



62 53 



62+53+9=124. 



This emigration amounts to 124 families and now, 
in 1861, there remain 30 within the former limits of 
the neighborhood ; gives the amount of 154 families of 
descendants of the men named and have formed 
families by connected marriages. These had their 
living during the time they remained in this place 
from the productions of the small patent of 1200 acres 
of land, and although it had become reduced to a low 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 191 

state of cultivation, more of its productions have been 
transferred to other people than would have supported 
another such a number of families. Emigration com- 
menced about the year 1790 and has continued to the 
present time. The families first mentioned of, DeWitt, 
Depuy, Cuddeback, Gumaer, Van Inwegen and Wal- 
lace, settled on the military lands in the state of New 
York at Onondaga and at the Owasco and Skaneateles 
Lakes at an early period of the settlement of those 
lands, and some were among the first pioneers of the 
same where they all procured lands and became far- 
mers in very comfortable circumstances, and many of 
their descendants, like their forefathers, have also sold 
their farms and removed into the western states to 
advance their interest for the benefit of their children. 
The other families have removed in all directions from 
this neighborhood at greater and less distances from 
it, but generally into the western part of this state and 
into Pennsylvania and different other states. 

Of the four first families, who remained permanent 
residents in this neighborliood,twelve children became 
married to non-residents of the same and founded 
twelve families, two of which settled in the lower 
neighborhood and were among the first settlers in it, 
five in the State of New Jersey, four in Rochester and 
its vicinity in Ulster County, and one in Orange 
County, east of Shawangunk mountain. The other 
children of those ancients were seven in number, and 
formed only six families. These remained in the 
neighborhood until abuut the year 1790. From this it 
appears that only half as many families of the first 
descendants remained in it as what moved out of it, or 
settled in other places. 



192 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

Now, if the 12 families mentioned had become set- 
tled and remained in the neighborhood, together with 
the other six, and increased and emigrated, in the same 
proportion of the latter, the amount, after deducting 
those of DeWitt and Terwilliger numbenng 16, would 
now be 324 emigrated,and 90 of present residents, and 
the whole amount 411 families. 



INCREASE OF POPULATION. 

As no accurate calculation can be made of the whole 
number of families descended from the first four per- 
manent residents in this neighborhood, I have adopted 
a rule for obtaining the number of those now in exist- 
ence as near as the same can probably be arrived at 
without actual enumeration, by getting a ratio of in- 
crease of the first, second, and as much of the third, 
generation as I can ascertain ; also the whole number 
of these from the time of the commencement of the 
first to the present time, in manner following, to wit : 

The first four families had an increase of 18, and 
these had an increase of 66 families, and 27 of the 
latter had an increase of 129. This enumeration is 
made from a knowledge I have in relation to those 
ancients. Of these, however, there were two families 
of the second generation whom I could not determine, 
but have estimated them at the same average rate of 
increase as that of the others, and the remaining 39 
are estimated to have produced an equal proportion of 
population, according to tbeir number, as that of the 
27, which latter giving an amount of 129, the remaining 
39 will give an amount of 186, and both these amount 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 193 

to 315 families of the third generation. The average 
increase of each of these per family is as follows : 



First 4 give a ratio of 4^ 

Second 18 " " " 3f 

Third 66 " " " U 



These being compounded give an average ratio of 
about 4^ families to one. Now a greater proportion of 
the fourth and fifth generations have died younger 
than of the three first, in consequence of which I 
have reduced the increase of the two former to that of 
a ratio of three per family, being about one-third 
lower than those enumerated. This is a ^reat change 
for the term in which the alteration has occurred ; 
still, the latter is about the same rate of increase as 
that of the United States since the year 1790 to the 
present time. In respect of foreign access of popula- 
tion the proportion which the former has acquired by 
intermarriages cannot differ much from that which the 
latter has acquired by immigration from Europe and 
by the importation of Africans to enslave them. 

The year 1700 I contemplate to be about the med- 
ium point of time between the births of the oldest 
and the youngest children of the first four fami- 
lies, from which to the present time is 161 years 
and reaches on au average about the beginning of the 
sixth generation and leaves two unascertained whose 
increase on a ratio of 3 is as follows, to wit : 315X3 = 
945X3=2835 families of the present fifth generation ; 
and exclusive of these there must now be a great pro- 
portion of the fourth generation in existence, and that 
the whole of the present families of descendants men- 



194 



HISTOEY OF DEERPARK. 



tionecl cannot be less than 3200 now on the stage of 
action. The greatest part of these are now widely dis- 
persed into different parts of our country. 

The five generations have had their growth within a 
term of 161 years, which gives an average of 32 years 
for each. 



LOWER NEIGHBORHOOD. 

Enumeration of families in the time of the Revolu- 
tionary War, embracing the head of each family, to 
wit : 



Decker. 



Jacob Schoonover, 
Moses Cortright, 
Abraham Yan Auken, 
Johannis Westbrook, 
Johannis Decker, 
Major John Decker, 
Sylvester Cortright, 
Anthony Van Etten, Esq., 
Levi Van Etten, 



Jacobus Van Fliet, 
Daniel Van Auken, 
Solomon Kuykendall, 
Simeon Westfall, 
Wilhelmus Cole, 
Peter Cuykendall, 
Martinus Decker, 
Samuel Caskey, 
Jacobus Davis, 



Of these families, their children and grand-children j, 
the following number of families have removed out of 
this town: 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 195 



o 
o 



t3 

o 



o ^ o 



O 



Names. £:p ^^ 



Qj 1-3 CD 

(X) p 



CD B - 

H ^ Pj 

r 02 I 

— Decker 2 

Jacob Sclioonover 1 

Moses Cortriglit 1 

Abraham Van Auken 3 

John Westbrook 2 

John Decker , 3 

Maj. John Decker 3 6 

Sylvester Corfcright 2 

Anthony Van Etten, Esq 6 3 

Levi Van Etten ... 1 4 

James Van Fliet 1 4 

Daniel Van Auken 11 5 

Solomon Kuykenclall's heir or devisee, 

James Van Fliet, Jr . 3 

Simon Westfall 4 

Wilhelmus Cole 3 

Peter Kuykendall 4 4 

Martin Decker 2 

Samuel Caskey 1 

James Davis 6 1 



56 30 



There may have been a few other families who have 
removed out of the town whom I have not known. 

Of the descendants of those ancients, there now re- 
main, as near as I can ascertain, about 5 families in 
this neighborhood. 



196 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

These numbers, 56+30-1-5=91 families. 

There now are about 20 families in this neighbor- 
hood who are of the anterior emigration from the 
upper neighborhood and are included in in its calcula- 
tions. 

The following is a calculation of the number of fam- 
ilies of each generation of the lower neighborhood, 
to wit : 
1st generation which was contemporary with the 

second of this upper neighborhood 20 

2d 91 

3rd, at an increase of three families to one- 273 

4th, at the same rate of increase 819 

The two last 273+819= 1,092 families. To this last 
number add the 3,000 of the upper neighborhood and 
the amount is 4,092. 

There are two of these prior generations who, by 
deaths, may fall short of these numbers mentioned,but 
I contemplate that as great an addition of families 
exists of the succeeding generation of each neighbor- 
hood as will amount to such loss, and that there now 
are at least 4,000 families in existence of descendants 
in some degree of the ancients mentioned. 



THOMAS WHITE. 

This man's services have been of greater benefit and 
advantage to the third generation of descendants of 
our neighborhood than those of any other individual,in 
consequence of which he ought to be held in remem- 
brance by our descendants, and he, together with our- 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 197 

selves, become incorporated in our history as the first 
important originator of education in it. In justice to 
the merits of Mr. White in respect of myself, I will 
here state that by means of his services I have become 
enabled to write this history and exhibit to its readers 
the information it contains ; and in addition thereto 
the enjoyment of other sources of knowledge for which 
and all other blessings we have reason to be thankful, 
not only to the individual from whom we derived the 
same but also to that Being who is the originator of 
all our enjoyments. 

The benefits we (who were of the generation men- 
tioned) have derived from him, consisted in the litera- 
ture he taught us in our childhood and youth at short 
difierent periods of time in the schools he kept in our 
neighborhood, whereby we generally received such a 
portion of education as enabled each of us to trans- 
act his own ordinary business in relation to his deal- 
ings with others, which, in our time, had become more 
necessary than what it was in the days of our fore- 
fathers, most of whom kept no written memoranda 
of their dealings with each other, which in their time 
(during about ninety years) was unnecessary for the 
greatest part of them. In addition to these benefits 
we became more enlightened and enabled to acquire 
additional knowledge and information by reading, &c. 
Mr. White and his wife Elizabeth, came to this 
neighborhood in the autumn of 1776 (as near as I can 
ascertain) to serve its inhabitants as a schoolmaster and 
they became residents in my father's house together 
with his own family, and taught school in one of its 
rooms during the ensuing winter, and probably until 
some of the neighbors moved into it and the construe- 



198 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

tion of a fort commeuced, and notwithstanding the 
danger to which the inhabitants of our town became 
exposed by the invasion of the Indians, he continued 
to live in the house during a great part of the war,and 
was in it at the time when the fort was attacked. 

When the enemy came in sight, he told Capt. Cud- 
deback that he was a King's man, but would stand by 
him to help defend the fort against those savages to 
the utmost of his power. (He was a warm friend of 
his native country and its laws). Mr. White was in 
the fort daring the hard winter in the time of the war, 
and kept a diary from which he ascertained that no 
water, had dropped from the roof of the house during 
a term of forty days in tliat winter. 

I will here, before proceeding further with the his- 
tory of Mr. White, narrate how the inmates of the fort 
managed to sustain themselves during the winter. 
When the Indians burnt the houses of the neighbors, 
many of thd pots were damaged by these fires. Tliese 
were used for keeping small fires in them in difierent 
parts of the fort house. Two large fires were generally 
kept up in the two front rooms, and a fire in a stove in 
another, and in the other room a pot with hot coals, 
supplied fiom the fire places, was kept up to warm the 
room for a dwelling of some of the oldest women. On 
the chamber, against the sides of the chimneys, pots 
with fire were kept, supplied with hot coals from the 
fire places, and also with chips and small pieces of 
wood. 

In the northwest corner of the chamber,a small room 
was partitioned off for a dwelling of Mr. White and his 
wife, so that in winter time they were out of the great 
bustle of those who were in the house. A pot with fire 



HISTORY OF DEEEPARK. ' 199 

ill it was also kept in his room, and sometimes a small 
fire was kept in one of tlie foremost cellar rooms for a 
few soldiers. After the snow became too deep to get 
wood from where it was previously got, the men first 
broke a road to a large hickory tree, which stood in a 
field, under cultivation, of Benjamin Cuddeback, at 
about one-quarter of a mile distant from the fort. This 
was cut up and brought to it. The butt log, about 
three feet thick in diameter, was cut through and 
served for a log in each fire place. The next log con- 
tained all the knots of its large limbs, and could not be 
cut through nor split with powder, and rem lined there 
until it became rotten, long after the war ended. Next 
a road was broke through the snow about the same 
distance of the first road, to the Meversink river,which 
(in ordinary winters generally remained open from the 
mouth of Bashas-kill to the Delaware river, about ten 
miles distant) was all frozen over with strong ice, so 
that teams could pass on it. 

Along the east bank of the river, trees were cut, so 
as to fall on the ice,and thereby the men were enabled 
to get a plentiful supply of woo 1. In passing to and 
from the river,a spring brook had to be crossed, which 
in other wintem generally remains open at the place 
where it was crossed that winter on strong ice. Much 
snow blew into the brook and coalesced with the water, 
and all froze together and formed thick, strong ice, so 
that teams passed over it during the coldest weather in 
that winter. 

I will here resume my history in relation to Mr. 
White. A few years before he came into the neigh- 
borhood, a school house had been built in its central 
part, about twenty-fivei rods southwest of Capt. Cudde- 



200 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

back's reBidence. Mr.Thomas Kyte had be^n employed 
to teach school in this house, but, in consequence of 
much other business, the school was much neglected 
and very little education was acquired by those he 
taught, and after he quit, the neighborhood luckily 
obtained a good teacher by employing Mr. White. He 
had emigrated into this country from England where 
he had received his education, and also acquired the 
trade of manufacturing ropes. He said that every 
youth in England (when he was there) had to learn a 
trade, even the King's son, who was expected to be- 
come heir to the Crown, had to learn a trade, and that 
the King, who reigned when he was there, had been 
taught the trade of Aveaving silk. 

Mr. White was a small, light-built man, very active 
and quick to perform the business he transacted. The 
action of his mind was also quick, and more suitable 
for acquiring a great amount of superficial knowledge 
than to penetrate and make deep researches into sci- 
ences which are difficult to be understood, for which a 
bright mind of slow action is more suitable. He was 
also a man of uncommon perseverance to transact the 
business of his trade, the teaching of his schools, (fee, 
and, whenever he was not employed in either of these, 
he was generally engaged in reading or writing which 
he would pursue to a very late hour in the night ; and 
early iu the morning, at or before break o: day, would 
be up out of bed, assist his wife to get breakfast, 
and resume his business. He was very fond of asso- 
ciation and delighted to give and receive information, 
Avhicli induced him to write a great many letters to his 
distant friends and acquaintances,in which he was very 



HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 201 

expert and never at a loss for matter to make out a 
long letter, whenever lie felt inclined to do it. 

I conclude that Mr. White had been taught in one 
of the best of common schools in England, and in a 
very perfect manner as far as he had progressed. He 
was a very eloquent reader, and could . perform the 
same with an air suitable to the nature of the subject 
on which the reading treated. I have always consid- 
ered him to have been equal to the best of readers I 
have ever heard. He was also very perfect in orthog- 
raphy ; arithmetic he did not understand as well as 
some other teachers we have had since his time. He 
said he had passed through the greatest part of Dill- 
worth's arithmetic at school, but had forgotten some 
of the rules in the latter part of his assistant, which 
contained more arithmetic matter than the books now 
generally used in our common schools. He had some 
knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, ajid as 
much of the French tongue as enabled him to inter- 
pret the French words which were interspersed in 
different parts of a book I read in school the last year 
he taught in our neighborhood, and, by much reading, 
he had acquired an extensive knowledge of the Eng- 
lish tongue. He said that when at home in his coun- 
try (which he always called his home) he had free 
access to a library of books, and that he had read 
many of them on different subjects, whereby he had 
received the greatest part of his historical and other 
information of different kinds. 

After his last year's service in our neighborhood he 
retired to the east side of Shawangunk mountain, into 
a neighborhood of his former residence,where he con- 
tinued a few years. During this time, and one or two 



202 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

years previous to it, Moses DeWitt, a son of Capt. 
Jacob Rutsen DeWitt, a resident of this neighborhood 
who had, in his youth, become the best scholar in Mr. 
White's school, and afterwards received a small addi- 
tion thereto, became well qualified for a surveyor, and 
was employed as an under-surveyor, when he was 
about twenty-one years of age, to run the line between 
the States of New York and Pennsylvania, and after- 
wards to survey some Government lands at, and in the 
vicinity of, Tioga Point, and thereafter he and Maj. 
Hardenbergh obtained the whole business of survey- 
ing the military lands in this State. W^hile DeWitt 
Avas occupied in that business he concluded to locate 
in the County of Tioga, and induced Mr. White to 
move into it. The latter, after becoming a resident in 
it, became its County Clerk. Mr. DeWitt's miod be- 
came changed in respect to locating himself, and he 
settled in the County of Onondaga. After Mr. White's 
term of service as County Clerk ended, he removed to 
the residence of Mr. DeWatt, whose health had become 
impaired by exposure in the pursuit of his business of 
surveying, and his constitution continued to debilitate 
until he was taken with a severe sickness, which, after 
a short duration, ended his days at the age of about 
twenty-seven years, at which time he had acquired an 
estate, in wild lands, worth about ten thousand pounds, 
New York currency. During the time he was confined 
to his bed, Mr. White was his affectionate and faithful 
attendant, but his services did not avail to prolong 
life,and all hopes of enjoying the remainder of his life, 
together with his friend, were ended. 

After a short stay he removed from the place, which 
had become a melancholy situation to him, into the 



HISTORY OF DEEEPARK. 203 

County of Orange and bought a small farm in the 
westerly part of tlie town of Wallkill, in the neighbor- 
hood where liis former friends and acquaintances, 
Elijah and Elisha Reeve, Esqs , Erastus Mapes, H( ze- 
kiah Woodward, Alsop Vnil and others, lived, where 
he not only became so situated as to enjoy the happi- 
ness of associating with them, but also had access, 
whenever desirable, to his friends and acquaintances 
in his former neighborhood on the west side of Sliaw- 
angunk mountain. Mr. White had no children nor 
any relatives in this country to attract his affections ; 
these, consequently, became more strongly directed 
towards tliose individuals who were the most agreeable 
to him. He remained in the neighborhood of his resi- 
dence until death ended his mortal life, and, after his 
decease, was buried in the graveyard at the Presby- 
terian church near Otisville. In and by his last will 
he made several small bequests to his friends, as me- 
morials of his friendship towards them. He also 
directed the sum of six hundred and twenty dollars, of 
the avails of his estate, to be kept at interest, payable 
annually, for the purpose of paying for preaching one 
sermon in each one of four different Congregations, 
annually, forever, one of which was the Dutch Re- 
formed Congregation now in Deerpark, (formerly Ma- 
haekemeck Congregation), which appears in and by 
the will to have been intended for the inhabitants of 
Feenpack, to whom he had become much attached 
during the different periods of time he resided in it, 
and consequently also for the benefit of their descend- 
ants.* He also bequeathed a few other small legacies 



* The other three Churehes were the Congregational Church at Mid- 
dletown, and the Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches in Goshen. 



204 HISTORY OF DEERPARK. 

to liis best friends in the neigliborlioocl of his last res- 
idence. 

The characteristics of Mr. AVhite exhibited indica- 
tions of his having been descended from a respectable 
family in his native country. He possessed very hon- 
orable and honest principles, also those of morality 
and piety, which were apparent in his transactions and 
walks of life, arui also in the doctrines he generally 
advanced wdien those qualifications became a subject 
of discourse. 



THE END. 



CONTENTS. 

Preface. 7 

Introduction. 9 
Statement by Committee on Publication with 

sketch of the Author. ^" 13 

Geographical Formation of Valley. . . .-. 19 

Game, Fowls, Fish, Fruit, &c 22 

Indians , 24 

Manufacture of Implements of Iron and Steel . . 27 
First Settlers — Who they were and whence they 

came 30 

Ancient Families of Peenpack 41 

Ancient Families of Lower Neighborhood 68 

Longevity of First and Second Generations ... 78 

Lower Neighborhood 85 

Population of Peenpack, Manner of Living, &c., 

during Eevolutionary War and later 86 

Forts in Peenpack and Occupants 86 

Forts in Lower Neighborhood, with some of the 

Occurrences during the War 89 

Habits and Manner of Living 96 

Use of Cider and Spirits 101 

Use of Spirits at Funerals and Weddings 102 

Treating Visitors 104 

No Drunkards among Them for One Hundred 

Years . . 107 

Physical Strength of First Generation 110 

* The statement by the Committee on Publication which appears 
on pages 13-17 should have preceded both the Preface and Intro- 
duction. By an oversight not discovered until too late for correction 
it became displaced and appears out of its proper order. 



Page. 

Some Prominent Characters — Major James 
Swartwout, William Cuddeback, Peter 
Gumaer, Gerardus Van Inwegen, Samuel 
Swartwout, Capt. Abraham Cuddeback, 
Benjamin Depuy, Philip Swartwout, An- 
thony Yan Etten, Cornelius Van Inwegen. 114 

Minisink Battle ' 127 

Great Changes in Agriculture, Manufacture, 

Travel and Improvements of Every Kind . . 137 

Scarcity of Physicians in Former Times 144 

Birds, Reptiles and Animals 145 

Health, Food, &c 152 

Religious Worship — Organization of Betormed 

Dutch Church and its Ministers 155 

Administration of Justice — First Justice of 

Peace 165 

Prices of Stock, Grain, &c., formerly 170 

Currency and Measures 170 

Wages 172 

Cost of Building a House 173 

Business Transactions and Employments of 

Ancestors 175 

Christmas and New Year's — Two days devoted 

to each 175 

Characteristics of some of First Settlers and 

their descendants 180-1 

Emigration from Town of Deerpark 189 

Increase of Population 192 

Thomas White 196 



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